2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon: What's It Like to Live With?
Read the latest updates in our long-term road test of the 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon as our editors live with this car for a year.
What do you want to know about?
- Introduction
- 2011 Acura TSX Sport WAGON
- Just For Fun
- Quick In Some Respects
- The Old One Was Better
- Nice Set of Gauges
- Writers Heart Wagons
- More Coasting
- 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon Swallows 80-Inch Bookcase
- Scuffed Up
- Wife Approved (IF she's self assured)
- This Button Does Not Work
- "Beautiful Car"
- Inebriation Detector?
- Awake at the Wheel
- Just Another Accord?
- Just not Swedish Enough
- Keep It Clean
- When My Hand's on Your Greasegun
- JDM Approved
- Boards, Bikes and Bivouacs
- Fun With Full Lock, Part II
- Dog Report
- Balanced, yes. But Sporty?
- Hauling Extra 911 Parts
- Bluetooth Audio vs. iPod USB
- Not-So-HandsFreeLink
- Audio Review
- The Other San Francisco Road Trip
- Report from the Road
- 799 Miles Later
- Excellent Highway MPG
- Navigation-Audio System Likes, Dislikes
- Checking the Oil
- Ten Things I Like About You
- Almost Needs Service
- Our Favorite Caption
- You Write the Caption
- This Car Talks
- Hello, Again
- Power Liftgate Video #3
- Voice iPod Search (Video)
- Scheduled Service Visit
- Front License Plate Bracket
- Does It Really Need a V6?
- Well Done
- Ouch
- 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon vs. Honda Crosstour
- Yankees, Angels and Hyundais
- Hooray For The Wagon
- Fits In At The Country Club
- Not Sporty? That's OK
- Child Safety Seat Fitment Test
- Long Fuel Range
- Smells Like Dirty Diapers Trip
- Romancing the Wagon
- Parsley, Sage, Rosemary on Borrowed Time
- Nice Tie Downs
- The Sands of Time
- Great Ride Quality
- Scratched Exterior Door-Handle Cup
- Is This Really Necessary?
- Cabin After Dark
- Mixed Message
- GMR
- Reflecting Badly
- Milestone
- Does The Bike Fit?
- So Much Better in Sport Mode
- Would You Look Here?
- Five Discoveries
- Sunshine
- Just Enough
- Does This Even Count?
- Monterey Historics Weekend
- Where's Waldo's Car?
- Now This is Useful Space
- Answer Key
- Monterey Trip Impressions
- Low H Point
- Middle Class is Tops
- Cruising Through 2012
- Touring Iconic Los Angeles
- I'd Get The Sedan, Like Most People
- Power Rear Hatch
- Real Sport Imagined
- Real Sport, Part II
- Buttons Are Best
- Driving in Foggy Weather
- Form Factor
- Transported
- Rev Matching? Not So Much.
- Ding. Dong.
- Oh, Really?
- Center Child Seat Top Tether
- Soul. It's Still There.
- B1 Service. It's Time.
- 15K Milestone
- To Vegas And Back...
- Looking for Something Special
- Hot Spot
- Service at 15,000 Miles
- Rear Seat Comfort
- Long Haul-iday
- The TSX Wagon Stands Alone
- 1,800 Miles in the Passenger Seat
- Gravel Truck 1, TSX 0
- Bluetooth. Why Doesn't It Work?
- I Want It
- The Roadtrip Report, Pt. I
- Oregon Pictorial
- The Roadtrip Report, Pt. II
- The Roadtrip Report, Pt. III
- New Windshield
- Thinking About It
- The Seat Heater Gag
- 2012 Model Is An IIHS Top Safety Pick
- Still Don't Have the Hang of It
- Does the Baby Fit?
- Driving Like an Adult
- Lumbering Haul
- Okay, Is this My Fault?
- A Look Underneath
- How Many People Bought it in 2011?
- Tasteful Tie Downs
- Will Two Bikes Fit?
- Because I'm Not Always Awesome
- Surprising MPG
- 20,000 Miles
- Sweet Sorrow and a Repurposed Ashtray
- Makes My Short List
- Wrap-Up
Introduction
That the 2011 Acura TSX wears the least-prominent beak in the Acura lineup is reason for rejoicing. That it's now available as a wagon with a practical, stylish, hatchback hind end is reason for straight-up celebration.
After all, its TL and RL brethren, bigger cars with bigger price tags, succumbed to the Acura brand's now-iconic schnoz several years back, but the TSX — even through its transformation into a wagon — has remained remarkably beak-free.
Right on.
Wagon Logic
Regardless of your position on Acura's brand-identifying proboscis, the TSX is, and has always been, a well-equipped sport sedan. And for 2011 Acura is offering a wagon version as an alternative for those who want the utility of a wagon without the burden of a taller SUV.
Burden, you say? Yes. You see, we're car fans here. And short of a few stiffly sprung German exceptions, SUVs, even crossover SUVs, rarely handle as well as cars. And when they do, they really aren't all that fun to drive. We'll forgo the Newtonian physics needed to explain this phenomenon. Trust us here. SUVs aren't cars. And some people want cars with utility. Us included.
This combination, unfortunately, isn't always well received by American buyers. Lexus tried it back in 2002 with the IS 300 SportCross. It was cool, utilitarian and even looked pretty good. But Americans, firmly entrenched in SUV mania, refused to shell out for a wagon.
Acura doesn't seem to care, instead it is pressing on with blatant disregard for history and a solid commitment to people who prefer cars. Nice.
The Performance Cost/Benefit
But it's not 2002 anymore. Gas costs about a buck per gallon more than it did then, plus fuel economy in this SUV alternative should be better. And in the most painfully apparent observation in this story — it is. The EPA rates the TSX Wagon at 22 city/30 highway/25 combined — we recorded 24.3 mpg over 987 miles in our test car.
Infiniti's EX35 — a crossover that lands roughly in the TSX Wagon's price range — is rated at 17 city/ 24 highway and 19 combined mpg. We recorded an average fuel economy of only 17 mpg in our last test of the EX35.
Certainly, the Acura's better fuel consumption comes with a penalty — namely that it's considerably slower than the V6-powered EX35. Our test car, with its 201-horsepower 2.4-liter inline four-cylinder and five-speed automatic transmission (the only powertrain available in the wagon) hit 60 mph in 8.8 seconds (8.4 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip).
The quarter-mile, too, requires more time in the TSX. Its 16.5-second pass at 84.9 mph is slower than every luxury crossover SUV made today. The power deficit is most obvious during throttle-position changes, which catch the engine outside its power band. Subtle moves accomplish nothing. Be subtle with the gas pedal and not much happens. You need to wood it to get any real reaction.
Sport mode helps by holding onto gears longer, as does manual shifting via the steering-wheel-mounted paddles. An additional gear entirely would make an even bigger difference, but we don't expect to see a six-speed anytime soon.
Braking distances are long for a car with a sport sedan legacy to uphold. At 127 feet from 60 mph, the TSX requires 6 more feet than the decidedly unsporty Toyota Venza. The 2011 BMW X3 requires only 116 feet.
But Wait. It Handles, Right?
Still, those seeking only utility and luxury might have less interest in its outright acceleration. Maybe you're after a carlike handling experience and simply don't need the speed.
And the TSX, for the most part, delivers. It zipped through our 600-foot slalom at 64.6 mph and circled our 200-foot-diameter skid pad at 0.83g. These numbers are better than a Toyota Venza or Chevy Equinox, but not as good as the best-handling luxury crossovers.
Still, we're not going to pretend the TSX Wagon is tuned as a driver's car. There's not as much feel or feedback through the electric-assisted steering as we'd like, and its chassis stops being enjoyable long before its limits are reached.
There's adequate damping to keep the small wagon from wallowing over surface changes on the freeway, but not enough to offer genuine control on a less-than-perfect road. And for a car with some sporting intentions, the numbers — and the subjective experience — could be better. The upshot is that comfort is quite high and the ride frequency is tame on most any surface. This is a civilized wagon, not a sports car. It will serve you well as long as you're more inclined toward country cruises than you are to back-road thrashings.
Will It Fit?
When it comes to simple cargo volume, the TSX Wagon offers as much as most crossover SUVs. With 25.8 cubic feet of cargo space behind its rear seats and 60.5 cubic feet of space with them folded forward, it falls somewhere in the middle of the pack. The more expensive Audi Q5 offers 57.3 cubic feet with its seats down, while the Toyota Venza offers 70.1 cubic feet.
The second-row seats don't fold completely flat, but Acura makes up for it with three bins (two small, one large) beneath the rear load floor. There's another bin built into the driver-side rear panel, which contains a 12-volt power point. There are also steel tie-downs in the cargo area to lock your heavy goodies to the floor — something conspicuously absent in many hatchbacks. Wagons equipped with the Tech package supply a power-operated hatch via a button on the driver door, a button on the hatch or from the key fob.
There are no remote release handles for the second-row seats. Folding the seats is accomplished by reaching inside the hatch or going old-school through the back doors.
The driver seat offers standard eight-way power adjustment and a manual lever on the side to manipulate lumbar support. Heated front seats are standard. Our 6-foot-1-inch copy editor stuffed himself in the backseat after adjusting the driver seat for his preferred position. His knees touched the seatback, but there was ample headroom. He'd tolerate a ride across town this way, but not much farther.
Familiarity
Otherwise, this is standard TSX fare. Leather covers the seating surfaces, steering wheel and shifter. There are steering wheel buttons for the audio and cruise controls, as well as for the standard Bluetooth phone connection. The center stack — all 40 buttons of it — is fairly busy, but we found it relatively easy to access critical functions. An auxiliary jack and a USB connection for your iPod are standard.
There's a sense of quality inside the TSX that falls somewhere between the sensible Mazda CX-7 and the luxurious BMW X3. Everything fits together nicely, the materials are high quality and road and engine noise are kept largely at bay. Even at high rpm the i-VTEC four sings a refined song. Sure, you'll have to work to get it there, but it sounds pretty good when you arrive.
Our test car, equipped with the Tech package (which includes navigation, a rearview camera, a 10-speaker premium audio system with a 15GB hard drive and the power liftgate), rang up a $35,470 total. That pricing positions the TSX Wagon at the bottom end of the luxury crossover spectrum and a few hundred dollars more than a similarly equipped Toyota Venza.
And by our measure, that's exactly where it should be. It's not powerful enough to compete with more expensive luxury crossovers, yet it's more appealing on the inside than your average Equinox or Venza. Acura isn't expecting big sales numbers and neither are we. Still, we're glad to see it offer this wagon anyway, as it's only a little more power and a better transmission away from being truly desirable.
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
It didn't take long to put our 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon to work. Yesterday, we used it to haul all of our track-testing equipment. Acura says that the cargo capacity is 26 cubic-feet with the rear seats up (versus the TSX Sedan's 14 cu-ft trunk) and thanks to my dormant Tetris skillz, it looks like we had about 1-2 cu-ft left. What didn't fit under the cargo cover, however, were the 6 large cones and the weather station's collapsible, metal tripod. Those went behind the front seats on the floor.
As I mentioned in the Introduction, the TSX sedan and wagon are the same up to the b-pillar.
The Acura TSX Sport Wagon may not be lightning at the track. In our full test of an identically outfitted TSX wagon, its 0-60 time was a drowsy 8.8 seconds.
But in everyday driving, its five-speed automatic transmission is quick to shift when you need it. As soon as it hits an incline, even a subtle one, it doesn't hesitate to downshift. And I was driving in D, letting the car do its own thing.
I find the TSX Sport Wagon to be enough for me on the road. I had no problems passing pokey commuters or merging into traffic. I think this is going to be one of my favorite cars in the fleet.
That Arctic Blue TSX up there was my own car, so I suppose you can call me biased. Or perhaps you can call me better informed. Either way, I say the old, original TSX was far better than the current car.
To be fair, there are some improvements. The throttle calibration with the manual transmission makes so-equipped cars easier to drive, though that's a moot point with the auto-only wagon (and the fact it's less of an enthusiasts car now). The navigation and Bluetooth software are also improved, while the iPod interface exists. So does the wagon, which stayed across the ponds during the original generation.
Beyond that, the acceleration is worse, the steering is worse, the seats are worse, the styling is worse and the interior is worse. For the latter point, I've included a complaint by numbers after the jump.
1) I doubt this piece used to be metal, but its polished silver finish at least looked like metal and felt a lot more like metal than the new car's trim. The Parchment (tan) interior came with wood trim, if you're into that sort of thing. This stuff looks, feels and definitely is plastic. It looks cheap and doesn't belong in a car that's supposedly a luxury model.
2) The door handles used to be chromed metal. Now they are flimsy-feeling flastic.
3) Nevermind that the TSX's tuning knob has been replaced by a tuning rocker button, but the remaining volume knob is now plastic with a rubber grip ring around it. The old knobs were metal with this really cool ringed vinyl-record-like finish to its top.
4) Speaking of buttons, the new TSX gets the usual array of unnecessary Honda buttons. Category, seek and tune, plus A.SEL and Scan. Then you have all the navigation ones. Most of those used to be in the touchscreen, and with the exception of perhaps the radio presets, I say that was better. It was at least cleaner looking and I thought it was easier to use at a glance.
5) The buttons themselves have a rough texture to them. I guess that helps if you have slippery hands or something, but they don't feel especially nice. I've never felt the need to file my nails on an A.SEL button.
6) Like the Accord and Crosstour, the TSX has Honda's uncomfortable "corrective posture chairs." The old one didn't.
Small things, sure, but details that signify that the TSX has regressed. Is the last TSX still my cup of tea? Well, I don't own it any more. But I certainly like it better than this one — wagon or no.
Apologies for the blurry picture (at night, hand held, blah blah), but I can assure you that through human eyes these gauges are quite clear and legible. In fact, the more I drove our TSX this weekend the more I liked the setup.
There's a redundant PRNDL display with a digital gear indicator, an easily scrollable trip computer and high contrast backlighting. It's so simple, yet not always done well. Also, I think it looks like a step up from your average Accord setup. And yes, I know this is an Accord in Europe.
The TSX Sport Wagon's nav-traffic update is pleasantly easy to use. Coming up on some slowing this morning, I hit the Info button, rotated the dial to Traffic Incidents, and saw that I'd be loping along at 45 mph for about the next mile. And it was surprisingly accurate, at least on the distance. It reported several other incidents ahead that turned out to be nothing. I rarely bother with nav-traffic features anymore as they're often buried in multiple menu layers and never seem as accurate as a basic Google traffic app.
Common perception among readers is that all automotive writers love wagons. That we're somehow affecting some European preference for extended hatchbacks. But that hasn't been my experience.
At least around the Edmunds and Inside Line desks, only muscle cars, rally cars, Mustangs, Porsches, Ducatis and mountain bikes inspire the sort of bickering that ends in hurt feelings and vague threats of reprisal during performance reviews. Wagons just don't get us all that pumped.
We like 'em well enough, sure. We praised the A4 Avant. No one was gonna go to blows over it, but it always had a driver. The TSX wagon will earn a similar fanbase around the office, guaranteed. It's no Avant. But it is comfortable. It's techy and firmly sprung, giving some life to expansion joints, road stubble and transition sweepers. It's got more cargo capacity (60.5 cu ft) than our departed Crosstour (51.3) or Avant (50.5), and it's geared to wring the most out of its 201 horsepower.
In our long-term intro, some readers pinned it as a torque-less, low-power bore. On paper, sure. But on the road, especially when bubbling in its sweet spot (about 70 mph @ 2,500 rpm), it's got plenty of step. Passing maneuvers are especially enjoyable. Set up your move, check your lanes, and click off a paddle downshift. Instant VTEC and a slingshot around the obstacle.
If you can stomach the price — and at $35,470 for our long-termer, many can't — it's not a bad way to spend a lengthy commute, especially if the route features clockwork congestion and regular collisions.
So I have been blathering recently about the Chevy Cruze’s transmission behavior to all who would listen (many ran away). So imagine my dismay to discover the same sort of things at work in the TSX Wagon.
The same sensation of coasting at cruising speed, as if the automatic transmission had backed off to reduce mechanical losses and thus enhance fuel efficiency. The same critical sensitivity of the throttle pedal and the same frequent cycling of the gear ratios. So much is going on in the transmission that the TSX always gives me the sense that I’m not driving as smoothly as I should.
But after a while, I finally figured out it’s my fault, not Acura’s.
You can imagine some eager-to-please Acura engineer confronted with a focus group of American drivers.
On the one hand, we ask for a strong sensation of performance from the TSX, even when it’s equipped with a four-cylinder engine that’s intended largely for fuel economy and an automatic transmission that’s intended largely for smooth uninterrupted drivetrain performance. On the other, we ask for the same kind of fuel efficiency you might get from a Honda Civic coupe, not a moderately heavy wagon.
So we’re pretty much asking for the suspension of the laws of physics. GM designer Harley Earl, the most important car stylist in America from 1930 to 1958, once asked his engineers if they could develop something that would be a strong as metal, only transparent. We’re asking for that.
So what we get is a transmission full of ratios, plus programming that swaps eagerly between a handful of them whenever the throttle pedal senses the hint of enthusiasm. So the car is fast. And we also get a fly-by-wire throttle pedal calibrated for very aggressive tip in. So the car jumps ahead, which feels fast.
At the same time, the transmission will shift into the tallest gear possible under light throttle loads, so overall fuel efficiency is improved. And the torque converter wants to disengage and let the engine coast under light throttle loads, also helping to deliver a good mpg number.
So if you’re wondering why you drive like a klutz in medium speed traffic, it’s because the transmission is trying to suspend the laws of physics and deliver both speed and fuel efficiency at the same time. It could shift less, but then you would complain that the car feels sluggish and you would whine about the fuel economy besides. And if you wonder why the guy in the car in front of you keeps tapping his brakes, it’s because the sensation of coasting is not what you want when the traffic is dense, so everyone rides the brake a little just to know what the car is doing.
So there I was, driving the TSX with a distinct lack of skill in commute traffic and I totally raised my hand to acknowledge, yes, I am the one to blame.
It's fun trying to fit stuff into wagons. This weekend's victim was a tall, very narrow, newly purchased bookcase that needed to be ferried back to the casa. The bookcase is 80 inches tall and was in a box of equal length.
As you can see, the Sport Wagon chugged it down with no problem.
What's the tallest thing you've ever fit within your ride?
As you enter and exit a vehicle, your heel can sometimes make contact with the seat base. I imagine the finest plastics withstand this affront without any scars but such is not the case with the plastic found in our TSX Sport Wagon. At just 3,300 miles, the seat base (on the driver side) looks a bit worse for wear.
There's also some noticeable bruising on the glove box and front passenger-side door, in areas where I imagine the legs and feet make frequent contact.
Wiping the plastic with a soft cloth didn't do much to improve its scuffed appearance.
I don't think brutish editorial behavior is to blame here, unless you want to blame the team for having functioning legs and feet. The Sport Wagon serves as a family vehicle for many owners; seems like sturdy plastics should be part of the package for a vehicle competing in that segment.
Any scuff marks on the seat base, glove box and door of your vehicle?
I rotate through so many vehicles my wife ignores most of them. When she sees one in the driveway she'll often say nothing, or at the most ask what it costs.
Our long-term 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon elicted a different reaction — though part of this comes from her having to move it before rolling the trash cans out.
After sitting in it for maybe 45 seconds and moving it about 4 feet she came back in the house full of commentary.
"That car looks and feels great. I love the interior — very luxurious. How much does it cost?"
I told her, "I don't know, somewhere between $30,000 and $35,000" (I couldn't remember the exact price at that moment).
"Really?! I thought you were going to say something like $50,000. Can we get one?"
I felt bad telling her the TSX Sport Wagon is indeed a good buy at $35,000, but few Americans will ever consider it because of their inherent fear of being seen driving a wagon. I told her Acura was fighting an uphill battle to sell them here.
"Well too bad for them. I don't have a problem with wagons. Buy me one."
Sometimes she makes me so proud (and not just because she takes the trash out herself).
This button that is supposed to allow you to pop the rear hatch from the driver seat doesn't work. Press it and it does nothing. I looked in the owner's manual to see if there were special instructions, like hold the button down for a few seconds or press twice, but nope. It just says to press this button to open the hatch.
We'll have it looked at. For the record, the button on the key fob works fine. And the button on the hatch that closes the power-operated door also works just fine.
On a side note, I think it's funny that the button pictures an SUV. Didn't want to spend money on a wagon icon, Honda?
My upstairs neighbor in my small, five-unit apartment building isn't having the best week. He's in the process of moving out and the separation has been less than smooth. He and our landlord (who lives on the premises) are in disagreement regarding his deposit; my neighbor thinks he deserves a full refund, but my landlord thinks otherwise.
Anyway, in between the moving boxes and the angry words with the landlord, he caught sight of the TSX. And for a moment the scowl that's been a fixture for the past couple of days was replaced with a smile. "Beautiful car," he said.
I think I agree with him. How about you?
What? Does the 2011 Acura TSX wagon think I'm too drunk to drive? Does it have some kind of cutting edge alcohol detection system that sniffs cabin air?
For the record, I'm not and it doesn't.
No, this display is part of the startup sequence, and it's confirming that driver number one's preferences are enabled. Preferences for radio station presets, for manual entries in the address book, for wallpaper and for general navigation system settings and the like.
It recognizes "Driver1" via a chip built into what the navigation manual calls a "fob key", known to the rest of us as the key fob. Driver2 can have his or her own settings and they'll be seamlessly loaded when the second key fob on their key ring is detected in the ignition.
This all works out just great until you borrow your spouse's keys, of course.
I capped on the Crosstour awhile back about redundancies in its thin strip display and the nav screen. Our TSX wagon has the same layout, with one difference: its thin display hovers over the audio source buttons, not over the vents as in the Crosstour. A small change, but the cluster seems to make more sense in the TSX, perhaps because it's framed by the vents on both sides. The climate controls are also are grouped together lower in the stack. It's definitely a cleaner setup than our TMI Odyssey.
Maybe a minor and inconsequential detail, but demonstrates that maybe - just maybe - voices of reason are resonating in Acura's design centers.
The exterior is sharp and flowing, and the beak is tame. It's not a stretch to call it the best-looking Acura in years - ironic since it's basically just an Accord Euro badge job.
But an interior win isn't special. Interiors have rarely been one of Acura's liabilities. Some of us have remarked about the cheap feel of the trim and switchgear, a legitimate complaint in a car priced at $35,000 for our testing. I'm not really bothered by it, but I didn't buy the car nor do I live with it every day. Your mileage may vary. For the record, nothing about Audi, BMW or Buick buttons, bulbs and rocker switches strikes me as particularly memorable. Nor is this anything on which to waste much concern. It's like complaining about the color of your kitchen trash bags.
And I could live with TSX Sport Wag every day and be pretty content, dull buttons and handles regardless. We're accused by some readers of waving most imports - Honda specifically - through the door with the lightest of criticisms. These same readers probably haven't read about our year with the Crosstour and the Insight, nor the Outlander Sport.
But the TSX doesn't need a pass. It's simply a good car. Great interior, great electronics interface (dead easy to move between phone, nav and audio functions), and engaging attitude. It's easy to scoff at the "sport" in its name, but not once you've felt its chassis hang deep in the grooves through a highway transition sweeper in swift moving traffic. If anything, it's a little too enthusiast-sprung for many daily commuters.
Debate all you like about its price. Acura has invited the criticism. Optioned up like ours, you're only a grand away from a base A4 Avant, and a couple bills shy of a base 3-Series wagon. It's a tough sell for someone shopping a wagon, or someone not necessarily a driving enthusiast. All that shopper sees is a round badge and a final score.
Through February, Acura has moved nearly 600 wagons. That sounds off pace for the 4,000 it has projected to sell in 2011, but summer gas and SUV abandonment still loom. And like several readers have noted, the addition of a V6, 6-speed manual and Acura's all-wheel-drive system makes that $35k sticker less shocking. But another automaker recently offered a 220-hp V6 wagon with a 6-speed stick and nearly the same cargo volume as the TSX, and that car disappeared after three years. Now, just try to find a Mazda6 Sport Wagon in your area.
I signed out our 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon for the first time this weekend. I'll admit the poor car sat parked for most of it. I didn't listen to the radio. I didn't even pair my phone. I just drove to and from the office. During this brief stint it left an impression. This car feels like just another Accord to me.
Being compared to an Accord isn't a bad thing. But I expected Acura to differentiate itself more from Honda on this one. On the surface it may as well be our long-term Accord Crosstour. This is an Acura? Am I wrong for wanting more? I see it doing power slides on the TV commercial. Maybe I'm not giving it a fair shake. I may need to give it a second chance.
The TSX Wagon is nice and all, but I think I'd rather have this Saab 95 I spotted last night. The thing is flawless, like it just drove through a time portal. Unlike the TSX, the 95 seats seven people almost assuredly in oh-so-spacious comfort. Looks better too.
Judging by the plates, this is a Swedish market car (the California plate is bogus) and note that the wheel is on the right side. "But wait!" you say, "Sweden drives on the right like we do." That's correct, but they drove on the left until Sept. 3, 1967 at precisely 5 a.m. when the country switched over to the right. Imagine waking up that morning and not getting the memo.
Our Acura TSX wagon missed its regular Monday morning wash, so I took it to the carwash this afternoon. It was sunny and in the high 70s, so plenty of cars were getting some lunchtime attention.
As I was watching the Blue Wave attendent wipe-down the TSX's rear hatch, I was reminded of a guy I used to date. He also worked for a car magazine, and therefore had access to pretty much any car he wanted to drive.
One difference between us was I liked my cars all clean and shiny, and he liked his covered in dirt.
Didn't matter if it was a Hummer or a Ferrari, he hated the idea of a clean car, said it made you look like you were trying too hard. He wanted his cars to look like they had been driven, not transported, been thoroughly explored, not just appreciated from afar.
How do you show your car love? By keeping it clean or driving it hard?
It's like a disease, son.
Six points for the TSX Wagon's ELS Surround audio system. It's one of my only chances to spin coasters from my staggering four-disc DVD-Audio collection, one of them - Queen's "A Night at the Opera" - re-mixed for 5.1 by uber-engineer Elliot Scheiner himself, sonic architect of the Acura system.
Talk about a doomed format. DVD-Audio and its Super Audio CD (SACD) rival came on about the same time file sharing and MP3s took over. Overpricing didn't help the high-def format cause, as most folks viewed it as gouging to support a new novelty format. Today it really only survives among music and hi-fi nerds, which is a shame. Listening to something like Pet Sounds on the ELS system is a real pleasure: loud, present, enveloping, with percussion, horns, and voices sweeping around from the rear pillar speakers.
Hotel California is nice too, but Don Henley is a choad and kinda ruins it for me.
Gratuitous detail alert! TSX wagon features OE safety belts manufactured by Takata Corp, they of the Kelly green multi-point harness fame. Almost makes us believe the TSX-W could do a 1:05 lap at Tsukuba.
I don't think Jacquot or Monticello has yet tested the TSX-W's bike capacity, but the question won't be "will the bike fit," but rather, "how many will fit?" The TSX offers good cargo capacity at 60.5 cubic feet. Walton got all of our track test gear in back with the rear seats up, while Warren managed to haul a nearly seven-foot long bookcase lengthwise.
After a little seat tweaking, the wagon can also carry a 9'2 longboard lengthwise with more than a foot of margin.
You'll have to remove headrests from the right rear passenger and front passenger seats, then recline the front passenger to its max angle. Not flat unfortunately, but say a 75-degree angle. Quicker than using racks if you're riding solo.
You've got about 126 inches to work with from just off the windshield to contacting the liftgate, and that's with some wiggle room. The only snags are the shock tower pillars intruding into the cargo area and cutting down maximum width.
The TSX wagon will be great for beach hippies of modest means. You won't get the same parking lot stink-eye as you would pulling up in a 3-Series wagon, X5 or Range Rover. And if you lean the board on its rails, there's enough room in back to roll out a sleeping bag and catch some Z's while parked in front of the state beach gates, waiting for the sun. The rangers love that.
There was quite the discussion after I posted a video about our long-term Buick Regal's steering. I knocked it for the hollow sound and undamped feel it delivers when turned to full lock.
There was an immediate upheaval. How could make such a claim without any context? What was I comparing it to? Don't all steering wheels have to stop at some point?
Well, yes, but in the interest of reader interaction, here's the same test. This time I did it with the Acura TSX wagon, a direct competitor to the Regal. Make the jump to see the exciting result.
You can make your own judgement about the sound, but I can tell you a couple things about the feel since, you know, I was there.
For one, the TSX's steering effort is considerably higher than in the Regal. This means you're less likely to go flying into the bump stops. Second, it actually feels as if there is some kind of rubber bushing, or other high tech damping device, used in the steering system to cushion the blow at full lock. It's not exactly perfect, but there's enough there that you don't really notice it.
I'll check some other cars in the fleet to see if any other long termers have this issue. Can't remember any off hand, which is sort of the whole point.
Drove up to San Francisco this weekend with my dog Mya in the long-term 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon. She looked like the above picture for 99% of the trip each way, a good thing. I laid down a blanket and her bed across the seat, buckled her in and stored her leash, treats and travel water bowl in the footwell. Some notes about how the TSX did as a conveyor of dog (note: I realize that not all these issues are exclusive to the Acura, this is just my experience with it though):
— Love the vents in the center console so the dog could get some air without having to put the windows down, something I dislike when on the freeway.
— The lower seat height, compared to her previous ride in the Raptor, definitely made it easier and quicker for her to get in and out of the car and provided me with easier access to her.
— Wish the seatbelt fasteners for the side seats stuck out more from the bottom seat like the center seatbelt fastener. As it was I usually had to dig around from them to buckle her up — a must, not only for safety sake, but because the TSX is kinda fun to drive.
All in all, I'd say she was pretty comfortable in the Acura.
I finally had the opportunity to take our TSX Wagon home last night. The verdict? I am neither impressed nor disappointed. That may seem a little spineless, but hear me out.
The TSX Sport Wagon feels well-balanced. The four-cylinder engine is as middle-of-the-road as it gets, with just enough power to be decisive when getting on the highway. The suspension is soft enough to flatten the moderate road imperfections and firm enough to get a feel for what the tires are doing.
As far as wagons go, the TSX is just fine. But not for me.
When I see "Sport" in a cars name, I expect some performance. I know this word is fairly ambiguous and overused — like "light" or "organic." VW's guilty of using the SportWagen moniker, too. If I wanted some sport in my wagon, I'd be looking for something like an Audi S4 Avant or a Cadillac CTS-V Wagon. How great would it be to have an M3 or M5 wagon? Or maybe some nutty AMG wagon?
Any of those wagons would be worthy of "sport" in their names. Of course, they'd also cost quite a bit more than our $35k TSX. Like I said, it's a fine wagon, but the name just seems too optimistic for what it really is. Tsk, tsk, Acura. Or is it, "tsx, tsx?"
This is the day we picked up our new old 1985 Porsche 911. Obviously we needed the help of our new 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon, which hauled home all of the extra parts that come with the Carrera.
Filling the up the Acura's cargo hold (rear seats are folded flat) are the Porsche's extra decklid, complete with Turbo whale tail, the original black interior panels, included door panels and an extra console, the front trunk mat, and a big box filled with the car's air conditioning system. Gotta love a wagon.
For tunes during the long road trip to San Francisco in our 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon, editor JayKav and I went back and forth from using my iPhone via the USB port (because I am addicted to being online and need to charge my phone) to his via Bluetooth Audio.
We found that even though using Bluetooth was convenient, automatically connecting every time we got in the car, that the dash display didn't even show the song titles but rather we'd have to look at his iPhone for that info. Sure, he could scroll through the songs with the steering wheel audio controls but not being able to see which song is coming up next (without looking at his iPhone) is like the random horror that is iPod Shuffle. Hated that mp3 player.
Check out the display for when we hooked up the iPhone to the USB port. The song title, album title and artist name are clearly listed (although the photo isn't in focus, sorry) in addition to the titles of songs, and they're on the screen as opposed to, well, just the phone when you use Bluetooth.
I checked Acura TSX forums and on Acura's Bluetooth mini site to see if I'm missing a way to display the info on the screen but couldn't find anything at all, except that maybe it's the fault of the phone and/or wireless carrier. Anyone know?
Bluetooth is supposed to allow making phone calls hands-free, but the only way the operation can be truly hands-free is if a vehicle has accurate voice-recognition. But how often do you talk to your car? And how often do you initiate a call on the phone itself? Be honest.
The call in the video after the jump was initiated via the phone — and made while sitting still in the Acura TSX Sport Wagon. But the way Acura's HandFreeLink works with my iPhone 4, it's far from a hands-off operation.
Acura claims that the system is acting as designed and that if the call is initiated on the phone, the system restricts transferring the call to the car. Acura further explained that if drivers make calls from the phone while it's connected to the HandsFreeLink system, the assumption is that they don't want it going through the vehicle's speakers. "This is a privacy setting to keep the conversation on the phone," an Acura PR representative responded.
The PR rep also said that selecting the HandsFreeLink a second time allows the connection to be made to the system. And she added that the preferred method of transferring the conversation from the phone is through the nav system; you have to select the Phone/Info button, then "Phone" and then "Transfer."
While Acura claims this helps drivers keep their eyes on the road and off the phone — and helps ensure that the driver "really wants his conversation going through the vehicle's speakers" --- I can't recall any other Bluetooth systems that operate this way.
So I call it way too many button pushes just to have a hands-free phone conversation. And a fail.
Wagons are not the kind of vehicles that come to mind when I think of high-performance OEM car audio systems. Wagons conjure up images of parents hauling kids around, not solo cruising on curvy back roads with the tunes cranked. But that's exactly what I wanted to do after sound-checking the ELS Surround system in our 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon.
I knew that music producer Elliot Scheiner (known to music biz big wigs simply as "Els") personally tunes his namesake systems for Acura, and the version in the 2009 TL won our high-end audio system shoot-out two years ago. But could he and his partners at Panasonic, the supplier of the gear behind the marquee name, pull off a similar feat in the TSX Sport Wagon?
The Setup
The ELS Surround system that's part of the Tech Package in the 2011 Acura Sport Wagon consists of 10 speakers powered by 460 watts. The speakers include a 3-inch center-channel in the dash, a 1.5-inch tweeter in the "sail panel" in each front door, a 6.5-inch midrange at the bottom of each of the four doors, another 6.5-inch mid in each D pillar at the back of the vehicle and a 7.5-inch subwoofer in the passenger-side wall of the cargo area.
The Sound
As with every system I evaluate, I listened to 10 musical tracks that I've heard in literally hundreds of vehicles to gauge clarity/lack of distortion, tonal balance, timbre, tonal accuracy, soundstaging, imaging and dynamics. The music ranges from jazz jams of Bluesiana Triangle and sparse folk of Luka Bloom to the full-on rock of Red House Painters and bass-heavy rap of Outkast. I also use several non-musical tracks to further test soundstaging, imaging, linearity and absence of noise. For more details on this testing process and the tracks used, check out the Edmunds.com article Sound Advice. And since the ELS system can play high-resolution, multichannel DVD-Audio disc, I listened to a few of those too.
The ELS system in the TSX wagon had the slight midbass thickness that's common in many car audio systems, although it's usually not so slight. But that's the system's only serious drawback sound-wise and it likely could be tweaked out with the tone controls (including ones for the level of the subwoofer and center channel). Otherwise, the system is top-notched and a sheer pleasure to listen to. It reproduced my test tunes with tangible, lifelike quality. Instruments and vocals not only sounded authentic, but the system gave the recordings a sense of space that so many others lack.
It also brought out subtle nuances most systems mask, and the level of detail on background instruments and vocals was remarkable. For example, the strings that swirl into the mix at 1:37 and then slowly build in the Joan Armatrading track "Everyday Boy" had a 3D-like quality. And the vigorously strummed acoustic guitar in the track not only sounded pristine (instead of with the typical high-end sheen), but was also perfectly placed in the soundstage. And I rarely get through even the brief 2:25 minutes of the instrumental "Blues Walk" from Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, since I can tell right off how well — or how poorly — a system can handle it. But in the TSX I was so impressed with the accurate dynamics of the drums, the width and depth of the soundstage and the pinpoint imaging that I let the track play all the way through.
And this was just with CD WAV files. The ELS system really shines with hi-res DVD-Audio discs. I cued up John Hiatt's Bring the Family and became completely immersed in the vivid, enveloping sound of the surround mix. Ry Cooder's sly guitar riffs were reproduced with an ideal balance of smoothness and bite, while Jim Keltner's drums had a palpable impact and precise attack and decay. And the rear surround information perfectly complimented the front stage rather than acting as a gimmicky distraction.
The Sources
Our Acura TSX has a single CD/DVD player in the dash with AM, FM and XM radio. It also has an aux-in jack and USB port in the center console. The latter has a wire that extends off of it and is used for plugging in an iPod or any other USB-based player or a thumb drive.
The iPod interface is somewhat convoluted thanks to the clunky controller in the center of the dash, but the car also has a voice-activated "iPod search mode" that worked well with easy to comprehend commands like "Play artist Bob Marley." But it was tripped up by commands like "Play song Icky Thump." The iPod menu also lacks extra items like audiobook and podcasts. Plugging in a USB drive offers a similar menu structure.
The system also includes a 15GB hard-drive music server that records music from CDs (but not from a USB drive). The default setting is set for the system to record a new CD each time one is inserted, which explains how Pearl Jam ended up being burned to the hard drive in our TSX. Bluetooth audio is also onboard, and it didn't require having to pair it separately via my iPhone, as with some vehicles. In Bluetooth audio mode, track-skip forward and back work from the dashboard controls (along with play/pause) as well as with those on the steering wheel.
What We Say
I found very few sonic faults with the ELS system in the 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon. Besides a couple of minor quibbles with iPod integration, my only real complaint is that it should be available as a separate option instead of as part of the $3,500-plus Tech Package trim option.
The system exceeded my expectations — and not just for a wagon. but judged against OEM audio in any type of vehicle. And it accomplished what few systems can: It made me want to just hit the road and crank my music.
The Scores
Sound: A
Sources: A
iPod Integration: B-
Cost: B-
One of the cars our Editor in Chief didn't take on his San Francisco road trip — our 2011 Acura TSX wagon — will instead making the trip north with me. We never considered carpooling, of course, because we're not in the business of encouraging that here at Inside Line, and because we'd both want to drive the whole time.
I'm leaving tomorrow (this is just a photo of the car waiting for me to pick up pasta in Marina del Rey), and my actual destination is Half Moon Bay, which totally gives me the option of using Highway 1 for part of the trip, probably when I drive back on Thursday. The TSX wagon is not known for its corner-attacking ability, but nor was our long-term 2008 Accord and I still had fun with that.
In any event, I'll be logging about 800 miles with this trip. Is there anything you'd like to know about this wagon?
I incidently drove the TSX all weekend, but various chores kept me from putting on that many miles. So far I've noticed:
The ride is on the stiff side around town.
The steering ratio feels astonishingly quick for the non-sporting chassis.
The 2.4-liter engine is obviously light on low-end torque, but the mid-range is strong.
I miss the six-speed manual gearbox, even though I know Acura could never sell this combination in the U.S.
The seat/mirror memory feature is tied to the key and is always active like in our Accord Crosstour. I don't like memory seats and always wished I could disable this feature in the Honda but was never smart enough to figure it out.
I'm now in Half Moon Bay, California, with our Acura TSX wagon. I read all your comments, and will be doing a max-mpg run on the drive back to LA (or at least part of it). Per my usual strategy, I left late for the drive north and hooked up our Escort radar detector, so I won't be collecting any pertinent mileage data until I refuel and slow up on the pace. Impressively, the TSX still has over a quarter of a tank remaining after about 370 miles, but then again, that's easy with the wagon's oversized 18.5-gallon tank.
I also saw the requests for the nighttime instrument panel shot (consider it done) and commentary on wind and road noise. The plan is to try to make a video that gives you a rough idea of the noise level in the cabin. Of course, I've already formed an opinion on that.
And I'm of the opinion that wind noise and road noise levels are moderate in this car. The cabin is not mausoleum-quiet at 70 mph (and you'll want to use the speed-compensated volume adjustment, for sure), but it's not all that much louder at 8_ mph on a, hm, closed course. This certainly wouldn't be a reason to avoid this car, and if you want to play the numbers game, we measured the 70-mph cruise decibel level at 65 in a recent TSX wagon tester — the current-gen BMW 335i came in at 67.4 decibels and that never stopped anyone from buying a 3 Series.
I'm liking the ride quality in the TSX wagon. It's a tad stiff over seams and rough patches, but overall it's compliant and relaxed for the trip up Interstate 5, which everyone says puts them to sleep but which I happen to like because it's so familiar. My favorite part is the San Jose cutover on Highway 152 (near where the photo was taken). It's still green and pretty since the winter rains haven't stopped yet, and I like to set the cruise and sail through the sweeping turns.
The TSX felt steady and secure through these turns (and the steering had good weight and precision to it), but you can tell there's no athleticism hiding in this suspension calibration... it's not going to get more exciting than this if I detour on Skyline Blvd (Hwy 35) on the return trip. Which is probably OK. It's not like Subaru had any success selling Legacy GT wagons here. For wagons that are big enough to have baby seats in them, less sporting is probably more better.
One yellow flag for me so far is seat comfort. My back hurt for about half of the six-hour trip. The driver seat-back cushion is a little squooshy — I wish it was firmer. Also, I wish the seat-bottom cushion was extendable so I could have a little more thigh support.
Finally, good call on checking road conditions on Highway 1. Lots of closures still from Monterey southward, according the Cal Trans website, but I think I can still do Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz.
I took the slow road back to Los Angeles in our 2011 Acura TSX wagon yesterday. A friend (who knows how susceptible I am to back-roads detours) had suggested I check out Stage Road, a little road that parallels Highway 1 and runs between Highway 84 (aka, La Honda Rd) and Pescadero Creek Road in San Mateo County, California. Afterward, I continued down Hwy 1 to Santa Cruz, then made a run up Highway 17 (my favorite NorCal freeway) to have lunch with a friend in Los Gatos, CA. Finally, I embarked on a 340-mile fuel economy run back to Los Angeles — I haven't crunched the numbers yet, but they'll be in my next entry.
With all my stops to take pictures (this one is at the entrance to Redwood Basin State Park), this ended up being a full day of driving. Through it all, I enjoyed the TSX's compliant yet controlled ride quality, precise steering and various tech features (Bluetooth streaming audio, nav system that you can operate while car is moving). I've even grown to like the wagon's styling. But after 799 miles, I'm still not sure the TSX has any personality. If it does, I haven't found it.
There's nothing the TSX's power delivery or handling that makes me want to drive it more. It's not that the 2.4-liter engine sounds or feels bad. It's smooth enough, but its soundtrack is unmemorable — and the only time I really heard it was when I was climbing the grades on Highway 152 or the I-5 Grapevine. Mid-range torque was adequate in these situations, but it definitely starts to feel a little thin, and there's no escaping the thought that a turbo four-cylinder (as in our A4 wagon) or a V6 would be preferrable.
And although the TSX wagon felt fine through Highway 17's sweepers, I have a feeling our long-term A4 Avant would have been downright addictive on this road. There's a lot more isolation built into the Acura, and while that keeps things comfortable, it's hard to get a read on what's happening through either the steering wheel or driver seat. Obviously, this isn't critical for safety or sanity at a typical public-highway pace (there's always traffic on 17), but the lack of feedback sure is boring. Add in a moderate helping of body roll, and you're left with a family cruiser that could only be called a sport wagon by the loosest definition. Please start buying more wagons, Joe Public, so that Acura can justify building a TSX Type S wagon.
Below a glimpse of the partially socked-in California Coast just off Hwy 1 (Cabrillo Highway) in Santa Cruz County:
And here are a couple views of the meadows and the barely visible white-capped waves from Stage Road, which is up in the bluffs above the coast. Although pretty, I wouldn't really recommend Stage, because it doesn't have many good turns. In this area, Hwys 84, 35 (Skyline Rd) and 9 are better bets. I also like Empire Grade (north of Santa Cruz), but it's more enjoyable with a smaller, shaper-handling car.
And by request, here's a nighttime shot of the gauges taken after I returned home last night:
I'm late in updating you all, but last week, I drove 800 miles in our 2011 Acura TSX wagon. On the trip north to Half Moon Bay, California, I was hurried, slavishly monitoring the radar detector, driving with no regard for efficiency. Well, here's how that shaped out:
461.7 miles --> 16.760 gallons of 91 octane --> 27.5 mpg
On the way back, though, at your suggestion, I decided to do a fuel economy run, limiting my speed and smoothing my throttle inputs to maximize mpg. I remember someone suggested a 65-mph pace, but that's not realistic on Interstate 5 where the limit is posted at 70 mph and the vibe among motorists is decidedly unrelaxed. So I picked 70 mph as my speed and tried to stay close to that (obviously I had to go slower on certain portions of CA Highway 152 between U.S. 101 and I-5).
Make the jump to see how old leadfoot did.
342.3 miles --> 10.521 gallons of 91 octane --> 32.5 mpg!!
To review, the 2011 TSX wagon is rated at 22 mpg city/30 mpg highway/25 mpg combined.
Cruising at 70 was not the most comfortable pace because of the contentious environment among motorists and truckers on I-5. I would often go up to 75 mph briefly when passing trucks to lessen the severity of the tailgating behind me. Had this been a purely recreational drive, I would have just cruised at 75 mph, even at the expense of a couple mpg.
Still, the fact that I got 32.5 mpg speaks to what a few you have been saying about the TSX wagon's appeal as a fuel-efficient entry-level luxury car. This wagon has more appeal for me now that I know what kind of mpg it can lay down if I'm disciplined and unhurried.
I spent a lot of quality time with our 2011 Acura TSX's slick hard-drive navigation system on my recent road trip. That's right, I said slick. The big center control dial may look chunky-clunky, but functionality is excellent. It's easy to grab on the fly (which you can mercifully still do in Acuras), and it's perfectly damped so that you almost always get exactly the selections you want. Yep, function over form. I'll take that compromise any day.
I also like how Bluetooth streaming audio works in this car. I've noticed that other cars require you to "opt in" manually to streaming audio, even if your phone is already paired. But in our TSX wagon, if your smartphone is paired, and it's playing audio (in this case, All Things Considered via 89.3 KPCC's live stream... you can't hear this program live on satellite radio), all you have to do is toggle the aux button to Bluetooth Audio, and you're in business: Melissa Block and Robert Siegel are coming through in surround sound.
Of course, that's not to say the setup is perfect.
Although I like the high-mounted location of the navigation screen, it's almost unreadable for about 20-30 minutes when you're driving down Interstate 5 as the sun's getting low in the western sky:
I've also found that the display brightness is spastic for the hour leading up to sunset and the hour after. The display continually goes dark as the light changes, and takes a long time to adjust on its own. Acura engineers evidently knew this would be a problem, because there's a manual day/night override button on the center stack. I found myself hitting it about a dozen times during a two-hour slog through traffic, so that I could keep following the destination guidance on the map screen.
Our Acura TSX wagon passed the 7,000-mile mark on my recent road trip, and the oil life display in the trip computer is showing 20 percent oil life remaining. We'll probably make it to 8,500-8,750 miles before the car tells us it needs an oil change, so it only made sense to check the oil.
First thing, I noticed was how high the hood opens. That's not uncommon, I realize, and it certainly reduces the risk of bumping your head while leaning in, but usually, with a wide-opening hood, you have a gas strut(s) so there's no need for a prop rod.
Not so with the TSX... Ah, but not so fast, it turns out I missed the very obvious insertion slot for the prop rod (identified by yellow circle). Ah, well, sorry, folks. And thanks, rotatorsrus. Don't know how I missed that.
This is one of the more unusual prop rod designs I've come across over the last year. It ultimately works fine and holds the hood secure, but getting it set up is a little awkward because you have to hold the hood up pretty high. Helps if you have long arms, which I do. I could see this being annoying, though, for shorter people with limited upper body strength.
The dipstick is bright orange and labeled with an oil can (not obvious in my shot) to help you distinguish it from the bright yellow transmission fluid dipstick (not visible here) at 4 o'clock relative to the engine. The reach to the dipstick is a little farther in from the bumper than I'd like, but still fine given the wagon's low stance and I didn't get any grease on my clothes.
The oil level was fine — just above the halfway mark on the dipstick — so no need to add any of the 2011 TSX's preferred drink of 0W20 synthetic.
There's so much negativity in the world today, so I wrote a completely positive post on all the things I like about the new Acura TSX wagon. These are not in any particular order.
1. a real hand brake (my preference over a floor pedal or an electronic button)
2. audio buttons that are not stuck inside the nav system (which I rarely use)
3. leather-wrapped steering wheel that feels nice in my hand
4. attractive stitching detailing the leather
5. shift knob that looks like a black baseball and is comfortable in the hand
6. simple, not flashy instrument panel
7. tire pressure warning system that tells the psi (not exclusive to this car but nice)
8. steady but not too stiff suspension that takes a curve well
9. quick shifting automatic transmission
10. It's a wagon!
Just like our long-term Honda Odyssey, our long-term 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon has started telling us it'll need service soon. Every time we fire up the wagon this appears on its instrument panel.
Makes sense. The wagon is approaching the 7,500 mile mark, and this readout says the engine's oil is 85% spent.
Thanks to technetium99 for this week's favorite caption. Here are the others that made us smile:
The other dinosaurs kept a wary eye on the mighty T-SX. (blackngold1000)
Jurassic parked. (technetium99)
The T-rex went extinct because it had no T-sx! (ergsum)
I'm here for the fossil fuels (jcotov)
And they said the Station Wagon was Extinct!? (mjm87)
Proof positive that the TSX has an older fan base than any Buick. (teampenske3)
Even Acura thinks only old fossils want wagons. (technetium99)
Acura TSX, the sport wagon Evolved !!! (ralliartist)
Dino-might not! (actualsize)
TyrannoSaurus-reX (aleclance)
But will the dino fit? (aleclance)
How do you tell if an Acura or a Dinosaur is happy?? When their tails a Wagon!!! (ralliartist)
Its no velociraptor (inlinesix)
See that kids. They used to roam all over the land but know they are extinct. It's called a wagon. (mike6zz)
Even extinct dinos know that "sea shell's" is not a possessive. (technetium99)
Dino sures feels fuelish now. (joemt)
What was your favorite?
To the winner:
You can select one of these three prizes:
- Mercedes key fob flash drive
- Top Gear Season 14 (Blu-ray only)
- Top Gear Season 15 (DVD only)
Senior Editor Erin Riches sent me this photo of our Acura TSX Sport Wagon caught dyno testing. Heh.
What is your caption?
We'll post our favorite this afternoon.
Our long-term 2001 Acura TSX Sport Wagon talks to you. Literally. There's a video after the jump so you can see and hear what I'm talking about.
Is this cool? Or not?
Either way, our TSX Wagon will be going to the dealer this week.
I always felt the TSX sedan was a solid alternative to the Audi A4 or the BMW 3-Series; competitors that are a dime a dozen here in Southern California. What it didn't have in terms of content was made up for in style and being different.
In fact I practically owned one for three months. Yes, I have a history with the TSX.
My experience is from many years ago in in my single days. I dated a woman who had just bought one when I met her. It was one of those stereotypical drama relationships where she was very attractive but crazy. I mean c-r-a-z-y. She'd ask me to drive in her car all the time when we went out and I didn't mind because I loved the TSX. I didn't miss her when we broke up, but I missed the car. In fact I nearly bought one. Right before the TSX got that face that is.
Driving our TSX wagon brought back the positive memories from those days, except now it's a lot better. Not because the crazy is in the dim recess of my history, but because the TSX has evolved in vehicle type to match my current lifestyle. I'm a little older and my priorities in life have changed. Wagons and trucks are nice vehicles for me. Throw some camping gear, the dog, maybe a bike in the back and I'm happy. Though I love trucks, I believe wagons are more practical which makes our TSX is very appealing. Thankfully Acura has tamed down the face into something that is acceptable for this mid generation update.
Now that I'd want a wagon as my next vehicle, I have to ask myself if are those dime a dozen competitors plus a Subaru Outback any better than this? Is this a strong enough vehicle to be called an solid alternate to the mainstream?
Great experiences be damned because honestly I don't know. The latest poll (at time of writing) we had regarding the TSX and what it needs showed that most folks would prefer SH-AWD. The TSX don't got it. Second place in the poll was more sauce. Don't got it. We got our TSX at $35k and change, about $2k-$3k under the competition. I don't see price as a massive advantage either over the mainstream. It's a hard sell for me.
Say you were in my shoes. Would you really consider a TSX wagon because it's different? Would you take this over an Outback, 3-Series or A4 Avant? What other vehicles would you consider?
Ford has received a lot of play for Sync's ability to search an iPod using voice commands. I usually prefer to just use a control knob and a screen (which is how the iPod itself works), but if you know exactly what you want and want it quickly, the whole voice thing is pretty good.
Well, Ford is no longer the only game in town — others offer similar functionality, such as Acura. Now with this system, unlike Sync, you don't have to be using the USB input at the time to search or call up something on the iPod. For a demonstration of how it works, see the video after the jump.
So how do you know what these voice commands are? Well, Acura provides a handy cheat sheet to peruse separate of the master owner's manual. Should you not care to do that oh-so-painful bit of homework, the screen even tells you what to say. Note that it says "Play" and then a list of possible things it can play.
But regardless of how this works, let's just take a moment to marvel at this technology. Twenty years ago, telling a computer using your voice to do anything was only something you could accomplish while serving on the Enterprise-D.
Ah progress ... cue the carousel.
Our 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon's service reminder light started staring us in the face a few days ago, ever since the remaining oil life dropped to 15 percent. This morning the readout clicked below 10 percent, so with an Acura dealer just 2 miles from my front door and 7,701 miles on the TSX's clock, it was time to get it taken care of.
An Acura service monitor displays an alphanumeric code along with the oil life percentage, and today that code was A1. Not surprisingly, "A" is for oil change and "1" is for tire rotation, so that's exactly what I ordered up from Francisco, my friendly service advisor at Weir Canyon Acura in Anaheim, California.
With no appointment or call-ahead, a 40-minute turn around time seemed mighty good to me. I was less excited about the $105.37 bill, however.
Look closely at the bill above and you'll see that service code A, the oil change, cost $61.60. The oil in question is a 0W-20 synthetic blend, and they used 5 quarts of it at $7.79 each. The filter and washer cost $4.75 and the rest is labor and waste fees.
Another $39.95 went for service code 1, the tire rotation and brake inspection. If you're keeping score at home the front pads are now at 8mm thick and our rears are at 7mm — plenty of meat left.
Add in a bit of tax and we arrive at our total of $105.37. I keep telling myself I could have done all of this myself for about $35 and an hour of my time.
Something like 14 U.S. states do not issue or require front license plates, but California isn't one of them. I prefer to run around without, but our cars spend a lot of time parked parallel on the streets of west LA and Santa Monica, where meter maids cruise around in trendy hybrids looking for any excuse to whip out their ticket books and start issuing.
Having spent 7 years in Arizona, one of the enlightened states that doesn't have front plates, I hadn't noticed the missing plate on the nose of our 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon until I loaded some stuff in the back and found it laying next to the front bracket in the underfloor storage bin.
Reluctantly, and with a hint of sadness, I dug out a 10mm socket and a Phillips screwdriver and got to work.
The TSX's front plate comes with 8 fasteners; 4 to hold the bracket to the car and 4 to hold the plate to the bracket. The two black screws and the two shoulder bolts are the ones that affix the bracket to the car.
Install the two 10mm shoulder bolts first (yellow), but only tighten them after you make sure everything is square and just where you want it. You don't really have all that much leeway because the holes in the bracket and the pre-installed nuts in the bumper are all fairly precisely laid out.
At that point the two screws go straight into the face of the bumper right where they sit. The material is soft enough *whimper* that they go right in without the need for a pilot hole. There's no turning back at this point, of course.
All done, all square. Time for the other 4 screws and the plate itself.
The license plate screws have a dual-purpose head that offers a choice of a 10mm socket or a Phillips screwdriver. I like to use a speed handle with the scoket to help me line things up and ensure the self-tapping screw is going straight in. Also, the relatively small amount of leverage generated by a speed handle makes it easy to avoid stripping out the freshly-cut soft plastic threads.
Five minutes, two simple tools, no measuring necessary. For better or for worse, our 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon is now legal in SoCal. The meter maids have one less excuse to leave an unpleasant surprise on the windshield.
Sure, it would be nice. After all, the 3.5-liter V6 that's offered in the sedan delivers a healthy 280 horses. And this wagon isn't exactly quick around town.
But adding the V6 seems counter to what this wagon is all about. This car drives small for the most part. From its tiny steering wheel to its modestly sized cargo bay, it feels like a very compact wagon. A four-cylinder engine fits better with the overall package, it just needs a little more juice.
Our old Audi A4 Avant was about the same size, but it's 2.0-liter turbocharged engine served up 258 pound-feet of torque and it never felt underpowered. The TSX limps around with just 170 lb-ft from its 2.4-liter engine and it often feels like it. It's a shame as the rest of the car is such a nice package.
I'm referring to the steering wheel, which, even with the now de rigueur eleventy million buttons, manages to be about the best steering wheel you can find in any car; the leather, the stitching, the diameter, everything is right. My only complaint, and see if this makes sense, is the wheel feels too light; like it's hollow. There's no weight to the thing. While it doesn't feel cheap, it just doesn't feel as substantial as I'd like it to feel. Other than that, this wheel is very, very well done.
See that little storage area down left of the steering wheel? I hit my right knee on that every time I get out of the TSX wagon. It sticks out just far enough to catch me.
You know from my previous posts that I am only 5'4" tall so I have to adjust the seat pretty far forward when I drive. I doubt this storage bin bothers anyone else on the team. But my short legs forget that it's there every time I exit the car. Or maybe I'm not the only one. See the scuff marks to its right.
Wham! Ouch.
Having had the Honda Accord Crosstour and the Acura TSX Sport Wagon in our fleet back to back, one can't help but notice they are pretty similar inside the cabin. Not surprising since the TSX is based off the European Accord. But there needs to be some distinction between the Acura and Honda brands.
Our Crosstour was spiffed up inside almost like an Acura and cost $2,000 more than our TSX wagon. The TSX's interior isn't quite up to what I would call entry-level luxury. Both cars are nice. But they basically have the same set-up with the nav/audio system. The seats are almost similar but the TSX ekes out a bit more comfort than the Crosstour.
The TSX wagon should be more luxurious and special to claim the Acura name. And the Crosstour should be a little less so to appeal to frugal Honda buyers.
The Acura needs a stronger brand message if it wants to be considered luxury; it definitely needs to stand apart from Honda.
And while we are comparing, why does the Crosstour get a V6 and the TSX wagon gets an I4?
Price as tested: Honda Accord Crosstour: $37,563; Acura TSX Sport Wagon: $35,470
A couple of weeks ago my Yankees came to town to play our local club the Angels. Looking for a partner in crime I found Hyundai CEO and fellow Yankee fan John Krafcik. I bought the tickets. He bought the beer.
Around the second inning we started talking about our long-term 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon, which I had driven down to Anaheim for the game. John asked me how I liked it. "It's feels good, and it's very nicely put together," I answered with a mouth full of hot dog "But it could use more motor. When it's loaded with people and cargo it needs full throttle more than it should."
John took a sip of beer, thought about it for a second and said, "I'd really like that wagon to do well, but..."
So Krafcik isn't only a Yankee fan, but the man likes wagons. Maybe a five-door Sonata is in the works for this market.
Put me down as being quite glad that we have a wagon in the fleet again. Come to think of it, we've really only had three since the start of the long-term blog: the TSX, the 2009 A4 Avant and the 2007 Kia Rondo. (I guess you could include the Flex, too, if you wanted.) While I completely understand why people like crossovers and their elevated ride height, SUV-influenced styling and available AWD, all I really need for daily family duty is just a bit of extra luggage and cargo space. And I'll keep the car handling dynamics instead settling for car-like dynamics, thank you.
This summer my four-year-old daughter is going to a summer camp at a local country club a few mornings each week. I'm not a member of the club, as my bank account isn't ritzy enough. That's too bad, as from what I've seen of the independently wealthy lifestyle — lounge around poolside with other independently wealthy types and sip down mai-tais — I think I could get used to it.
Anyway, the point of this is I've driven our TSX Sport Wagon to the club, and it seems right at home in the parking lot among other high-end cars and SUVs. (Admittedly, the "Prii" in the photo aren't very flashy, though I guess they're somewhat representative. The white car next to the TSX (gold star if you indentify it) is a bit more special.)
I don't think I would feel this way if it was the regular TSX. Sure, it would fit in OK, but it's just not very special. The wagon is more hip. That in itself is funny because traditionally wagons were the appliances of the auto world. Maybe it's just because I like wagons.
If you've been following our posts about our TSX Sport Wagon, you've probably come to the realization (as we have) that "Sport" has more to do with marketing than anything else. Erin drove it to Half Moon Bay and found it devoid of personality. Mark had a similar reaction in his post. In each case, their assessments are pretty much spot-on. But I also think the way Acura set up its TSX wagon is the right one.
If you're buying a wagon, there is an underlying assumption that you're buying it for the added versatility. You probably have a family, or dogs, or something in your life that becomes easier to transport if you have a wagon. And if that's the case, then chances are you're doing a lot of daily driving instead back-road burning.
Given that, a suspension that favors handling over ride quality is going to get tiresome. That was actually the main thing that turned me off about our departed A4 Avant — its ride quality (with the fitted sport suspension, at least) was just too stiff for family duty. The TSX's suspension, though, is just about right. Yes, the limits are modest, but it's still controlled and compliant.
The same goes for power. Would it be super cool if Acura added the TSX's V6, all-wheel drive and manual transmission and call it a Type-S? Definitely. But how many people would buy one? Not enough, I suspect, for Acura to justify the expense. Just like Ed wrote recently, the four-cylinder is adequately powerful, and it provides pretty good fuel economy. As for the rest of the package, the TSX is comfortable, attractively styled and priced thousands less than its main competitors.
No, it doesn't get your adrenaline pumping. Maybe calling it the TSX Bland Wagon would be more accurate. But to attract the biggest share of that small sliver of people who still buy small to midsize wagons, the TSX is ideally positioned.
A while back on another TSX Sport Wagon post I saw a comment asking about how well child safety seats fit. Presumably, the commenter was wondering how well the TSX might work out as a family wagon. Well, I live to serve. I dragged out my collection of kiddie seats over the weekend and strapped them in. Acura versus Britax. Read on.
First up was a Britax Companion reverse-facing seat. If you're unfamiliar with safety seats, these are the ones used for infants, and they're typically the hardest to install because they take up so much legroom. The TSX fared adequately. I first tried the safety seat behind the driver seat that was positioned for me (I'm 5-foot 10-inches). I had to move the driver seat forward a few inches to get the seat installed.
But once the safety seat was locked in, I could move the driver seat back close to its original position, but not my ideal. From the passenger side, things will obviously be just fine as long as you don't have a front passenger. And even if you do, adults fewer than 6 feet tall should still be adequately comfortable.
One thing I do like about the TSX is the cut-out slits for the LATCH anchors. This makes it a lot easier to locate them and then install the buckles.
Next was a Britax Marathon reversible seat. I tried it in a forward-facing position. The TSX had two things going for it: removable rear headrests and not too much bolstering on the seat cushion. Headrests can interfere with getting the safety seat snug against the seatback, while bolstering can interfere with having it sit flush on the bottom. I had to use a towel to help get the right angle on the bottom, but otherwise this went fine, including the LATCH anchors and the tether anchor in the cargo area.
Finally, I threw in a Recaro Vivo booster seat. As long as you can remove the headrest, there's usually no problem putting in a safety seat like this. The only thing I don't really like is the way the TSX's seatbelt buckles are somewhat buried in the seat. They are hard to grab a hold of when you're reaching around the booster seat trying to strap your kid in.
Well, there you have it. Overall, the TSX seems like it'll do fine as a family vehicle from a safety seat standpoint. But I'll really be putting our TSX Sport Wagon to the test in a couple days as I'll be loading my family for a Fourth of July road trip.
One thing I've noticed with our TSX Sport Wagon is that it'll go pretty far on a tank of gas. Any car that can consistently go more than 400 miles is pretty good in my book, and the TSX qualifies. I took this picture soon after the low-fuel warning light went on and later fueled up at the gas station at 446.9 miles. I put in 16.7 gallons, giving me a 26.7 mpg average. The TSX's listed fuel tank capacity is 18.5 gallons, so I could have gone even further.
Originally, my title for this post was "Family Road Trip." But then Michael Jordan was over at my desk (our MJ, not "Mr. I'm a Hanes Underwear Shill Now") and saw that title on my computer monitor. He then asked if I was purposely trying to be boring. Well, no. But boring just happens for family road trips.*
Anyway, I loaded up my family (wife, 4-year-old daughter, 2-month-old son) yesterday in the TSX Sport Wagon for a 270-mile trip to my in-laws for the Fourth of July. Observations on how it did for family duty follow after the jump. And yes, there was a period where it smelled like dirty diapers.
Erin has already covered much of the TSX's road manners in her Half Moon Bay trip, so I'll just gloss over the driving dynamics. I do like the TSX's ride quality, as it was suitably comfortable on the trip. But there were a couple highway entrances where the four-cylinder's power output ended up being a bit short in the pants.
I figure the family and gear was adding about another 300 pounds — not a huge amount, but enough to make a difference. I still think the four-cylinder is the appropriate engine (the in-car fuel economy gauge showed a 31.6 mpg average for the trip), but combine a highway entrance ramp with some fast-moving semi trucks you're going to wish your TSX had a V6.
As for hauling gear, the TSX's cargo hold worked out adequately. We had a lot of stuff, so much so that we couldn't pack it all. (Actually, the TSX was a win from my standpoint. If I had been driving a high-roof Mercedes Sprinter, my wife would have probably figured out a way to find enough stuff to load that up to the max, too.) I left some room at the top of cargo area so I could still see out the rearview mirror, and I used the TSX's cargo tie-downs to bungee some of the top-lying bags.
As I noted in a previous post, the TSX's rear seats are roomy enough for child safety seats. My wife didn't like the front passenger seat though, as she said it was uncomfortable in anything but an upright position. This mirrors James' earlier post about them being "corrective posture chairs." The driver seat seems fine to me, but maybe that's because I like to sit upright. A few other notes: the audio system is indeed very good, interior storage (for cell phones, snacks and such) is OK but not great, and the navigation screen is noticeably better looking than before (the '11 TSX got a new, high resolution display).
Finally, we had to use the front passenger seat as a diaper changing table as our dinner stop lacked one in the restroom. My wife was not amused.
*Unless it's to Wally World and you're jumping naked into a swimming pool with a 29-year-old Christie Brinkley.
When I signed out the Acura TSX wagon for the weekend, Vehicle Testing Manager Mike Schmidt said, "I knew you were going to choose that. I was going to bet Magrath so it would be on record."
There is always a car in the fleet that I pretend to own. I used to own the Nissan GT-R. You remember, it was white and fast. For a while I owned the Mini E. It was my special little car for a summer. And the Audi A4 Avant, I actually considered buying when it's time was up.
My current fave is the Acura TSX Wagon. It suits my lifestyle. I love wagons. And I already own an Acura. This one is a perfect size for me. It has enough gadgetry to keep me entertained. I like the way it looks. And it's a fair price. It'll probably get dumped the next time we get an Audi in the fleet, but for now we're a happy couple.
My grandparents on my father's side had an olive farm in Italy. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit their nurturing genes. I'm a plant killer. I admit it. I told you the story about my poor lemon tree and my failed grape tomatoes and the fake plants that I watered for three months.
So, when I bought some herbs this weekend, I thought I'd give them a fighting chance and keep them from getting tossed all over the trunk on the ride home.
Hidden underneath the cargo floor in the TSX wagon, there is a shallow storage compartment that keeps things from sliding around. I put the poor frightened herbs in there and cushioned them with my other packages. They made it home safely. Now, let's hope I remember to water them.
Hadn't noticed this tie down before in the TSX. It's hidden out of sight in the corner of the cargo bay just above the floor loops. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the hook is actually made of genuine metal. Yep, no chrome painted plastic here.
This might seem like a given for a hook that supposed to secure things, but it's becoming less and less common as manufacturers look to shave cost and weight at every turn. I also like the fact that it's a "T" hook as a loop isn't nearly as useful for hanging bags and such.
About four years ago I moved to a cozy beach town. The best part of this house is the constant refreshing breeze that comes off the Pacific Ocean.
An unfortunate byproduct of this breeze is that every day I come out to a car covered in a light dusting of sand. I wondered if this would eventually affect the paint.
So I asked our staff. They assured me that as long as it's not a strong wind that is constantly beating against the car, it should be OK. Seagull poop is probably more harmful.
What do you think?
Here's an action-packed four-second video showing the buildup. Sorry about the noise. Someone fired up a saw just as I hit record.
I haven't driven our long-term 2011 Acura TSX in quite a while. It's pretty boring (steering, engine, styling). But the TSX, like most Acuras, has excellent ride quality due to its great suspension.
The front has double-wishbones including stamped-steel upper A-arms, cast-iron lower A-arms, coil-over dampers, and a front stabilizer bar. The multi-link rear suspension includes stamped-steel upper A-arms, cast aluminum knuckles, double lower tubular lateral links, tubular-steel toe-control links, coil-over dampers, and a stabilizer bar.
And these components deliver a smooth well-controlled ride with terrific impact damping, and compression and rebound control. I think Acura is one of the few makes out there with a ride quality that rivals that of BMW.
And that's quite an accomplishment.
This morning I noticed a scratch by the TSX's door handle, circled in red above. There are actually a couple other scratches in the general area, but they're not deep enough to show up in this photo.
Maybe the side effect of that hulking piece of rock on someone's engagement ring? It happens, I guess.
Still, I took a quick look at the other vehicles in our fleet and they don't seem to show any damage in this area.
Of course, if you're really anal about this sort of thing, you could always line the area with clear film, like this stuff.
This isn't a complaint. There's nothing wrong with lighted footwells. As you can see, it actually looks kind of cool.
I'm just curious why this has become a trend as of late? Are pedals becoming too hard to find in the darkness? Is it a ploy to increase deal pedal usage? Or maybe the lawyers have been demanding better floor lighting to reduce stubbed toes?
Or maybe it just looks cool and only costs the price of one cheap LED light? Yeah, that's probably it.
At night, the TSX's cabin illumination is clear and crisp, though it's ultimately a little boring for my tastes. Another shot follows after the jump.
Not too crazy about the font used on the audio display screen. But at least the illumination on the center stack has some semblance of cohesiveness — thankfully, the center stack looks a lot less busy and cluttered after dark.
The steering wheel of the Acura TSX wagon portends sporty driving capabilities. Nice, small diameter. Reasonably thick rim. High quality leather covering. And paddle shifters.
Throw the TSX into a corner...
And its squishy suspension and slippy tires say otherwise. Kind of a letdown.
Definitely not very accurate.
Question: What do Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, George Hincapie and the Acura TSX Sport Wagon have in common?
The Answer:
They all climbed up Glendora Mountain Road earlier this year during stage 7 of the Tour of California. Leipheimer won the mountain stage, which ended at the Mount Baldy ski area, while Horner finished second and cemented his TOC victory.
Big George and the TSX have even more of a connection. Hincapie rides for the BMC Racing Team, an American-based outfit riding Swiss-made BMC bicycles. Team BMC uses Acura TSX Sport Wagons as support vehicles for all of its North American racing activities, including the TOC. Hincapie, you might recall, helped some guy named Lance capture seven Tour de France titles.
How does this relate to our long-term TSX wagon? Well, the TSX carried me and my road bicycle to the base of GMR so that I could semi-emulate this stage, albeit at a much more sane pace. GMR is not only a great car-driving road (we've used it many times here at Inside Line), but it's also my favorite bicycle road in California. It's some 25 miles of nearly-continuous up if you start at the base of GMR and ride all the way to the ski slope. Followed by, you guessed it, another 25 miles of almost-continuous down once you turn around. The down is more fun.
One final connection is that BMC's Cadel Evans won the Tour de France yesterday, the first Australian ever to do so, with Hincapie once again helping. The BMC team doesn't use Acuras as support vehicles over in Europe, though.
I am curious what a TSX wagon would be like packed with 3 or 4 team managers and mechanics, all the gear required for a pro bicycle race and a multitude of bicycles stacked on the roof. The TSX isn't particularly inspiring with just one bicycle stashed inside.
Which begs the question that I'm sure one or two of you are now asking, How Well Does The Bike Fit? Stay tuned.
Now that Acura is no longer wandering in the automotive-design wilderness, I can be a fan again. I like the TSX Sport Wagon a lot. It's roomy and nicely appointed without being old-world stodgy (unlike a swanky Germanic wagon I drove a few months ago). So what I'm describing here is a minor complaint. I lodge it because it's something I haven't noticed in other cars, and it's distracting.
In late-afternoon sunlight, the driver-side window reflects the vents and instrument panel, turning the view in the outside mirror into what looks like a double-exposure special effect. The picture at the top of this post doesn't do justice to the problem — the reflection appears smack in the middle of the side mirror. I drove home looking at reflected air vents, and polarized sunglasses didn't make it go away.
Have you had this problem? Is there a solution — other than just waiting for the sun to set?
Yep, we've reached the 10,000-mile mark on the Acura TSX Sport Wagon. It may not be quite as sporty as its name implies, but so far it's holding up pretty well, with minimal signs of wear. And it's certainly a very comfortable vehicle with which to commute, or to just drive around like a normal person.
Yes, the much-adored "Does The Bike Fit?" segment is back. Copies/variations have shown up on these pages recently, editors wondering whether such things as ladders, surfboards and mattresses would fit into our long-term vehicles. I have yet to see any royalties whatsoever for my brilliant idea. But I'm not bitter.
And I'm not upset that "Does The Bike Fit" finished somewhere south of first place in a recent Inside Line poll question asking readers about their favorite blog topics. Hey, me and DTBF were just happy to be nominated by the academy. I'd be happier still if, of the 34-or-so votes it got, 33 hadn't come from me.
But I digress. So will a bike fit in the Acura TSX Sport Wagon? "Of course, you idiot, it's a wagon," you're no doubt saying.
And yes, it will fit. But there's a catch:
The catch is that the way the TSX Sport Wagon's rear shock absorbers jut into the cargo area greatly hampers the width of the car at the point where a bicycle's seat would like to be resting on the floor.
In the end, it still wasn't a big deal, as the TSX has such a long/deep cargo area that I just shoved the bike a little further back than usual to slide the seat around the shock. You'd see what I was talking about if this photo were at all legible.
Whenever I slip into the Acura TSX wagon I think, "I like this car." But when driving in regular "D" mode, I find its 201-hp 2.4-liter inline 4 a little lacking in excitement.
When I select "S" mode, however, the engine feels more powerful. The transmission allows the TSX engine to rev higher before shifting. And you can go fully manual by using the paddle shifters. It makes for a much more enjoyable drive.
So, when you're stuck in traffic or are concerned about fuel economy, choose D. But when you want to drive, choose S.
There are plenty of theories why Acura hid this power outlet behind a cover.
Did it not fit in with the design of the rest of the cargo area? Not likely. Are you supposed to keep a bottle of tire slime in that compartment and plug a compressor in there when you need a quick fill up? Doubt it.
My guess? The outlet fit there and when it was decided to add a cover over the space, the engineers figured there was no good reason to move it. Smart owners will read their manuals and find it right? Maybe (it's in there), or they'll never realize it's there and never be any worse because of it.
Yesterday I discovered five things about our long-term 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon. Three good. Two bad.
I made these discoveries during a single day run from Los Angeles to Big Bear Lake, CA and back, in the rain, with my entire family packed inside the TSX, including my 65 lb. doggie Bandit.
1) It's solid in the wet. Locked in. The run to Big Bear is about 75 miles of freeway and another fifty miles of state roads 330 and 18, which are essentially twisty two-lane mountain roads that climb from San Bernardino at 1,500 ft. elevation up to Big Bear at about 8,000 ft. The TSX felt great in these conditions on its Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 rubber (225/50R17). Not once did I have "a moment".
2) It needs more motor. Pesonally I find the TSX Wagon a little on the slow side down at sea level in Santa Monica. Get it up in the mountains at elevations over 4000 ft. and it is slooooooooow.
3) Push a few buttons and it'll show you a radar weather report on its nav screen (see photo). Cool.
4) It's kinda loud on the highway. For my taste the Acura lets a little too much road roar into its interior. It really does hum down the hightway.
5) There's plenty of room in the cargo area for my 65 lb. pooch. I can't say that about our Mini Countryman or Nissan Juke.
You can't escape the sun in southern California. The unwanted freckles on my arms are proof. Fortunately, the recessed design of this screen keeps it readable in bright sunlight. I gotta know what I'm listening to.
On a side note, Jo Stafford was my father's favorite singer.
With the wife and kid arriving home from an overseas visit, I thought this would be a good experiment to test the theory that wagons can do anything minivans can, just without all the bloat and stigma, and the similar logic that what a wagon can't do probably wasn't healthy for you anyway. Minivans are only excuses for fat, excessive Americans to indulge in our favorite pastime: consumption. Right?
Are you sufficiently baited?
Both vans in our garage were spoken for, so the TSX seemed a logical choice. The Missus travels heavy, the return trips always laden with suitcases and boxes full of Japanese stuff unavailable here in the States (expensive cosmetics and meccha kawaii!!! clothing, primarily). The wagon stashed it well: two large suitcases, two large boxes, and a smaller box next to a large child seat in the middle of the second row.
One of those wire dividers in the cargo area would have enabled stacking more stuff to the ceiling, and without it, the wagon filled quick while still remaining comfortable for two tired passengers. That said, the TSX SportWagon and its 31.5 cubic feet of rear cargo area probably meets its match when you add a second kid, two kid seats, and all the crap two kids pull in their wake.
Sure, you could rent a minivan for those twice-annual airport drop-offs and pick-ups. Or you could learn to keep less stuff. Both are valid points. Or you could just admit that minivans are easy to get in and out of, offer great views for world-curious young grommets (just say no to rear-seat entertainment systems!), get good enough mileage, and can make the airport, camping and water runs without bursting at the pillars.
The modern minivan might lack the mojo of a primo Chevy G20 van, a cherry Westfalia, or even a hip, sharp sportwagon. But when you've got luggage, boxes, and passengers dizzy with jet-lag who only want to conk out after the flight, minivan wins every time.
I mean really, I appreciate the sentiment and all, but what could you possibly fit in this underfloor compartment? Some books? A small painting? Several bags of tortillas?
Actually, I shouldn't be so hard on Acura for this one. After all, this is really just the opening for the spare tire compartment underneath the floor. The fact that the designers saw fit to finish the opening and leave a small slice of space is certainly better than nothing.
Oh, and they should get some credit for those metal sill plates, too, they're a nice touch.
Today I'm headed north to Monterey, California in our 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon to watch the historic car races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and look at some restored (and over-restored) classic cars at Pebble Beach.
I'm using the old Ridge Route to make my exit over the mountains and away from the LA basin instead of the kinder, gentler (but still steep) grade that is Interstate 5. The Ridge Route doesn't go all the way across anymore — far from it — but at least I'll be able to toss the Acura at a few slow and medium speed corners before I wade in amongst the trucks and other traffic and make the slog on up the freeway.
Before I left home I took suspension walkaround photos in my new driveway. I'll tweak them up and post something next week after I get back.
Waldo (Wally, if you're from the UK), that lanky guy with a red-and-white striped shirt, Harry Potter spectacles and a toque, borrowed our 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon and parked it somewhere in the infield at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Can you find it?
Also in this picture:
- Smart Fortwo
- Ford Boss302 Mustang
- Jag E-Type Roadster
- Hummer H2-T
- VW New Beetle
- Chevrolet SSR
Can you spot them all?
Last week I called out the Acura TSX wagon for its nearly useless chunk of underfloor storage. It was partly in jest as I never really expected to find much in the way of storage anyway, but Acura wasn't laughing.
Instead, it was already on the case. The setup you see above is considerably more useful and it will be standard in all 2012 TSX wagons. Acura got rid of the spare and replaced it with a tire repair kit to free up some extra space. An actual spare tire is still available as an option.
Not sure which way I would go on this one. I like the extra space and all but I'm not into the whole tire repair kit idea. A real wheel/tire is always more comforting even if it's not a full-sizer.
A couple of you correctly identifed the spot where Waldo parked our 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon when he visited Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. It is, of course, right there at the head of the green arrow, just behind a bit of orange cyclone fencing. @nisslover was the first to post the correct answer.
Here are the locations of the others:
- Smart Fortwo (light blue)
- Ford Boss302 Mustang (yellow)
- Jag E-Type Roadster (white - plus one more at the Jag display)
- Hummer H2-T (dark blue)
- VW New Beetle (orange)
- Chevrolet SSR (black)
How many did you find?
Thanks for playing
I like the 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon. My wife likes it, too. After a weekend jaunt to Monterey we both came away thinking that one of these just might get the nod as the replacement for our trusty minivan, a car we've grown weary of as our need for three-row seating and mondo cargo space tapers off.
Yes, I know it has the 2.4-liter four-cylinder, but it turns out we had no qualms about the available power. It's no overt speed demon, but there's more than enough here for it to comfortably get out of its own way and deal with traffic. Besides, my won't be flogging it like a track car anyway. And there is a little edge to it; its handling is composed and engaging and the ride is comfortable yet well-controlled. A limp fish this ain't.
The most glaring omission in my book is a 6-speed automatic transmission; the wide spacing between the cogs in this 5-speed box are readily apparent. The smaller steps afforded by another gear would go a long way towards improving the driveability of the four banger by reducing the drama when it kicks down and making overall power delivery more seamless.
As it stands, the inline-4 does fairly well at the gas pump. Rated at 25 mpg combined (22 city/30 highway), our trip average was 28.8 mpg. Our best highway tank was 32.2 mpg, and that included 70-75 mph freeway speeds and a trip up and over 4,160-foot Tejon pass.
There's enough space, it looks nice inside, the heated front seats are actually comfortable for my wife (a rare thing), and the Tech package has everything we want.
At $34,610 a new one with the Tech package costs a tad more than I want to spend. I'm on the lookout for a used one coming off lease.
Yesterday I blogged about the frustratingly high H point in our 2011 Infiniti M56 and one of the prevailing themes in the comments was that it's because the Infiniti is a Japanese car. While it's true that almost every German car can comfortably fit genetic freaks like Riswick without issue, it's equally true that not all Japanese cars make you sit on a stack of phone books.
Take, for example, our Acura TSX Sport Wagon: This seat gets LOW. When driving it I'm not angled back nor am I anywhere near as low as the seat can go, yet I still feel like I'm sitting in the seat.
When I parked at the coffee shop this morning, there were no cars on either side of me. I came out a few minutes later to find the VW Golf to my left, the Mazda CX-7 to my right.
Looking at the row of dark cars, it immediately struck me how each represented the next larger class: hatchback, wagon, SUV.
For me, the sweet spot's right in the middle. Especially when you put "sport" in front of "wagon."
This afternoon I pulled up IL's Buyer's Guide and clicked on "Acura: What's New for 2012," smartly written by my pal, Josh Jacquot. I figured I'd check to see what (besides the compact spare tire which Ed Hellwig already reported was coming in his post about under floor storage) 2012 TSX wagon buyers would be enjoying that wasn't present on our 2011 model.
Turns out, nothin'.
Besides new paint options across the lineup, the only other model receiving updates for 2012 is the TL.
This weekend we drove the Acura TSX wagon up to L.A.'s historic Griffith Observatory. For those of you who haven't heard of it, here's a bit from the observatory's Web site:
"Griffith Observatory's unique architecture and setting, compelling programmatic offerings, and cinematic exposure have made it one of the most famous and visited landmarks in southern California. Tens of millions have come to walk the inside of the building, view the live planetarium shows, or simply gaze out towards the coast and the heavens. This cultural and scientific icon owes its existence to the dream of one man, Griffith Jenkins Griffith, and to the dedicated scientists and public servants who worked to fulfill his vision of making astronomy and observation accessible to all."
Trivia question: How many movies can you name in which the Griffith Observatory appeared?
After I started working here I learned that enthusiasts are supposed to love wagons. That was news to me — I thought they were for Mommies and Mr. Moms.
Many people say they like wagons. Because they're so practical? Then how come these people never buy one?
If you want style and performance, get the sedan version of whatever car you're interested in.
And if you want more space, get an SUV/crossover. Or God forbid, a minivan!
But most people don't get a wagon. Like the 5-cylinder engine — which was supposed to have "the power of a 6!", and "the economy of a 4!" but ended up with the opposite performance characteristics — the modern station wagon is more theory than reality.
Consider the sales figures for the Acura TSX Sport Wagon.
My colleague Ivan Drury, Manager of Pricing and Industry Analysis at Edmunds.com , sent me the Acura sales figures for 2011.
| Model | 2011 YTD Jan-Aug |
| MDX | 28,759 |
| RDX | 9,326 |
| RL | 936 |
| TL | 20,373 |
| TSX | 16,438 |
| TSX Sport Wagon | 2,171 |
| ZDX | 1,133 |
| Grand Total | 79,136 |
Two stats can be derived from these figures:
- TSX Sport Wagon comprises only 11.7% of all TSX sales
- TSX Sport Wagon comprises only 2.7% of all Acura
It's great to have many choices available in vehicles. Acura also offers the RDX which outsells the TSX wagon by a large margin.
However, with wagons, enthusiasts talk a good game, but almost never put their wallet where their mouth is.
If I were to get a TSX, I'd get the sedan. Like most people.
Our long-term 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon has a power rear hatch, with three different ways in which you can open or close it.
The first is on the key fob. You can open or close the hatch with the fob. Another way is through the inside hatch switch on the driver's door. This also opens or closes the hatch, although you have to hold it down for a bit to operate. And the third way is by using the switch on the end of the tailgate. This of course only closes the hatch.
Many luxury SUVs and crossovers have power rear hatch operation. But it's a bit unusual to see this on a station wagon. Even our long-term Audi A4 wagon didn't have this.
Good job Acura. Maybe with the power rear hatch you won't second guess yourself that you bought a station wagon instead of an SUV.
I've stated before that one of my automotive pet peeves is when a car adopts the "sport" name when it really isn't all that sporty. Rather than moan about it this time, I Photoshopped what I thought a real TSX Sport Wagon could be.
I think a sport suspension package is in order to give the Acura some real credibility, so I lowered it quite a bit. The side skirts and front spoiler are already options. I then increased the wheel sizes and painted the brake calipers and badge red. I also blacked-out the grille. In the end, I was left with a riced-out version that looks more like a Honda. Perhaps I should've left well enough alone?
What do you think?
I received some pretty good advice from the commenters on my sportier TSX Photoshop yesterday. Here's yet another version with your changes (and a few more) implemented. This time around, I killed the roof rails (good call), darkened the wheels, removed the caliper paint, darkened the taillights, shrunk the side mirror, gave it body-colored door handles and blacked out the chrome trim. Now THIS is a sport wagon. Your thoughts?
Some people like the touchscreen. Some like the big control knob. I think buttons are best.
When you press a button, you know what you’re going to get. No pop-up menu. No guessing about where something might be filed. It just happens.
I wish I could tell you that the whole subject of information interfaces is built on science, but after watching road-test editors and three-year-old children play with dashboard controls in exactly the same way (and while making identical sounds of delight), I believe that higher-order thinking is not involved.
It just depends on what you like.
It's difficult to photograph fog. And fog can be challenging to drive in if the weather is thicker than in this photo.
Here are some (paraphrased) tips for driving in foggy conditions from the California Department of Motor Vehicles:
1. Don't
2. If you must, use your regular headlights, not highbeams. They create glare.
3. Never drive with just your parking or fog lights.
4. Drive slowly and leave enough following distance so that you can stop your car in the amount of space you can see ahead.
5. Avoid passing and switching lanes.
6. Lower your window slightly so you can listen for traffic that you may not see.
7. If you must pull off to the side of the road, turn off your lights and do not rest your foot on the brake. Other drivers may follow your lights, thinking you are moving and then BAM.
Have any tips to add?
I'm not crazy about our longterm 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon's front-end styling (hence the rear shot above), but there's no denying that its form factor just makes sense. Swiveling it into a compact parking spot at a crowded Trader Joe's last night punctuated this impression. Wagons rule.
And this one drives quite nicely. Ride, steering, and routine handling are tidy. It picks up well from low revs. The cabin looks and feels solid. It even has some of that new-car smell still. Yeah, the autobox is unexceptional — give me a manual any day — but at least there are paddles on the wheel. So, yeah, I like driving this car.
There's been a lot of Acura in my life lately. I've been driving my own car, a 2001 Acura TL, which recently hit the 130,000 mile mark. I drove the Acura MDX along a stretch of PCH on Friday as part of a charity event. I revived some pleasant memories of a 1989 Legend I once co-owned, thanks to a post over on our Readers Rides blog. And I drove the TSX Sport Wagon over the weekend.
All these Acuras are very different cars, obviously, with creature comforts from the rudimentary (22 years is an eternity in car years) to the luxurious (the MDX's interior serves up wood accents, lots of technology and leather seats that are cooled as well as heated — something that I discovered by accident).
The Sport Wagon has necessary, thoughtful and helpful features, but doesn't go overboard. It's a car that's spirited without being skittish and responsive without being aggressive. Plus, Acura's recent automotive rhinoplasty looks good on the car. Would that the designers could do a nip-and-tuck on the center stack. (An old-school black and white snapshot seems like an appropriate way to render it):
I don't have a day-to-day need for a wagon, but for some reason, this car really appeals to me. Maybe it's time to take up a hobby that requires the transportation of bulky objects. Any suggestions?
I'm not sure why, but Acura didn't make any real effort to offer rev-matched downshifts in the TSX Sport Wagon. So what, exactly, is this paddle for?
This is an odd choice. After all, it says "Sport" right there in the car's name. Did you catch that? S-P-O-R-T. It's right after "TSX" and right before "Wagon."
Ironically, Acura calls the transmission in this car a "SportShift 5-speed Automatic." But it doesn't match revs on downshifts. I contend that rev-matched downshifts are necessary for any car that has paddle shifters on its steering wheel. Their very presence encourages a driver to tap down a gear or two entering a corner. But when those requests are met with a drivetrain lurch — or nothing at all — the paddles become mere decorations.
And I'm not talking about downshifts that would over-rev the engine. No, there's an obvious middle ground in the tranny's wide gear spacing between over-revving and making a pointless downshift — one that leaves the engine below the speed at which it makes meaningful power. The TSX is guilty of both of the above charges. It regularly ignores downshift requests it deems too aggressive or it grabs a lower gear with a heavy lurch which upsets the chassis unnecessarily.
It's a frustrating state of affairs for anyone hoping to drive this car with, well, "sporting" intentions.
This is a ding/paint chip that's along the leading edge of the TSX's rear driver's side door. I have no idea how this much paint can be lost in one hit. Then again, I have no idea how this happened. But it sure is awful.
The TSX doesn't have an ashtray. So don't even think about it.
Figured you'd like to know.
Those of you that are parents might remember the post I put up earlier this year regarding the Suzuki Kizashi's center-mounted top tether. Well, the TSX has one also. It's in the roof at the back of the car near the hatch.
Until now, I've walways wondered what this is for. But the Acura's manual explains it clearly.
My confusion stems from the fact that Feds mandate 280mm between the LATCH anchors. Accordingly, the TSX has a total of four anchors — two on either side spaced at the mandated width. However, there's only four, not six. This car is designed to accommodate two LATCH-mounted child seats, not three. So the distance between the two center anchors is about 394 mm.
So what's the center top tether for?
Turns out, there are child seats which mount using the seat belt and have a top tether. I've never seen one, but I suppose some of you have.
Here's the thing: if there's only one child to carry, I prefer to center mount the child seat. But I've always found LATCH anchors far more secure than seatbelts. And I've easily secured LATCH-mounted car seats in the wider-than-standard position and been able to exceed the minimum seat-movement requirements discussed by the authorities. Heck, if you want to get neurotic you can use the LATCH anchors and the seatbelt in the center position. And in the TSX Sport Wagon, you can have a top tether as well.
Last week I complained that the TSX's transmission doesn't match revs. That bothers me, but it doesn't ruin the car for me. There's plenty to like here.
Bottom line, this is still a Honda at heart. It offfers traditional light, flicky Honda controls and its ultra-smooth engine is Honda through and through. But here's the thing: A lot of the character we remember loving about Honda's from the 90s and early 00s is masked by weight and "luxury."
First and foremost, the VTEC switchover to bigger cam lobes is still there — it happens about 5,000 rpm. But unless you're listening carefully, it gets ignored. And maybe that's what Acura wants. Could be. After all, any wail isn't exactly endearing to a luxury brand's identity. But is it what Acura needs?
There's more. Hondas have never had stunning brakes or stunning brake feel. But what they've always offered is a light-but-honest pedal which provided exactly what it promised — to stop the car in exact proportion to the effort you made. The TSX still does that. No, these brakes aren't going to set any 60-0 records, but there's still enough feedback through the pedal to accurately stop the car.
The steering, which is electrically assisted, doesn't offer the kind of feedback I'd prefer. Sure, there's enough information to prudently guide this wagon quickly over a mountain pass or down a backroad. It's the kind of feedback you'll appreciate at seven-tenths. And that's about as hard as you should ever drive this car anyway, so it works.
Finally, the most endearing trait I remember about the hear-and-soul Hondas of ten or more years ago was the low waistline — the windowsills which were at or below shoulder level, the flat floors and the simple control design. Forget the control design in the TSX. Modern demands have negated this in almost all cars and the this one is no exception.
But the waistline thing isn't completly gone.There are elements, glimpses, of those days still lingering in the way this car feels from behind the wheel. There's an airiness to the cockpit that I still like. Perhaps more than anything else, this is why I'd say there's still some Honda soul kicking around in the TSX Sport Wagon. And I still like it.
This alert showed up on the TSX's instrument panel over the weekend.
Oddly, the TSX wouldn't read off the required maintenance items. When I selected "voice" it would briefly change to "stop reading" for about a second and then switch back to "voice."
Anyway, a little digging around on the internet produced the below list of B1 Service maintenance items:
Replace engine oil and filter
Service front and rear brakes
Inspect parking brake adjustments
Inspect tie rod ends, steering gear box and boots
Inspect suspension components
Inspect driveshaft boots
Inspect brake hoses and lines (including ABS)
Rotate tires, inspect for wear and adjust pressure
Check all fluid levels, condition of fluids and check for leaks
Inspect exhaust system
Inspect fuel lines and connections
...one tank. Five hundred and nine point four miles. Earned 29.6 mpg cruising 75 to 80 mph. Air conditioning ran constantly the keep Scott "The Furnace" Oldham cool.
Didn't even get road butt. Ever. Nice seats, Acura.
I like the Acura TSX. I like its engine, its steering, and even the way it looks. But I agree with my colleague Al Austria: I'd get a sedan. I don't have the weird obsession with wagons that many automotive enthusiasts do. — hatchbacks yes, but that's another story. I would definitely buy a TSX sedan, but I would want something more special.
I would buy the 2012 Acura TSX Special Edition (SE). Typically, when Honda makes a special- edition vehicle, it's for a car nearing the end of its cycle, and Honda creates a model with the options of the top trim for the price of the lower trim. But this SE is different. It actually has some special features exclusive to this trim. The SE is a base-model TSX that adds a black interior with red stitching, black "Lux Suede" seats with red trim, red gauges and interior illumination, gray finished wheels, metal pedals and front, side and rear underbody spoilers.
According to Acura's press release, the Special Edition TSX "is designed to evoke the fun-to -drive 4-cylinder Acuras of the past." It sort of sounds like, "Our cars aren’t as fun as they used to be, but check out this model — it will remind you of our glory days."
Despite the slightly depressing marketing message, I still really like this car. All the upgrades are cosmetic (and better than Takahashi's version, IMHO), but I'm OK with that. The car has enough power for my needs and I wouldn't want it to ride any stiffer. The red stitching on the seats reminds me of the Acura Integra Type-R, but this car has many more amenities. And anything that reminds me of the '90s era Honda/Acura gets bonus points in my book.
The SE TSX costs $30,810 plus destination — $1,000 over a base model. There are only four colors to choose from: red, black, white and silver. My pick would be black.
What do you think of the Special Edition TSX? Is it worth the extra $1,000?
A heated seat is a great thing, and I happily used the feature this morning in the Acura TSX Sport Wagon. The seat is pleasantly warm on "lo" and a bit more assertive on "hi," but still comfortable. In some vehicles, however, heated seats pose a real problem: According to some reports, heated seats have burned drivers and passengers.
According to this Edmunds story, some of the concerns arise from malfunctioning seat heaters. Other problems, though, have to do with seats that function as the manufacturers intended, but run hot, and are being used by people who have no sensation in their lower extremities (passengers with medical issues such as paraplegia, for example). Serious burns can be the result.
Have your heated seats ever been too fiery for comfort?
Our 2011 Acura TSX Wagon requested its B1 service last week. Yesterday we dropped it off at Santa Monica Acura. We didn't have an appointment, just pulled into the service drive. An advisor promptly met us doorside, "How can I help you today, sir."
My interaction with the advisor was relatively brief, and I liked that. The B1 service covered an oil change and tire rotation. We weren't upsold anything we didn't need. We were offered a ride back to the office. And even though the advisor quoted us a time of 2-3 hours if we left the car with them, it was ready in just over an hour.
We paid Santa Monica prices for the service, $122.35. This lowered the experience from memorable to palatable overall (some day I'll come to terms with the cost of labor in this town, but not yet). Would we return to this dealer again? Yes, and the customer service is what would bring us back.
Last night, while getting dinner with some friends, I got some feedback on the wagon's back seat. Though neither passenger was especially large, (one was 5-5, the other 5-10), both gave it thumbs up overall for its solid back- and under-thigh support.
At 34.3 inches, the rear leg room specification is nothing to brag about, but the seat's firm padding, well-shaped backrest and relatively high seat cushion greatly contribute to the high comfort factor. As they say, you have to look beyond the numbers.
Northward ho! I'll be trekking to Corvallis, OR in our longterm 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon during the holiday break. That's something like 1,800 miles round trip. Almost exclusively freeway (unfortunately), though the roads do get rather nice up around Shasta, CA.
Anything in particular you'd like to know about the TSX on such a trip? I'll keep your requests in mind might even report back. That is, provided I can keep the ax-wielding fowl at bay.
Those of you not lucky enough to live in the LA area will, most likely, miss the 2011 LA Auto Show . You'll also miss Acura's shunning of the Acura TSX Sport Wagon. We know it's not the biggest seller in the fleet, but it deserves better than being placed right behind the big Acura wall.
From this angle it looks like it's off to the side, but it's not. From the main aisle you just can't see the Sport Wagon. Sure, if you're cheating the main aisle and making a b-line to Infiniti down the back wall you'll see it, otherwise, you'll need to spend a lot of time at Acura to check this one out.
They did have a BMC Racing TSX on display, but thanks to the small fortune in racing cycles, they had it fenced off.
Hey, there's Mt. Shasta!
For Thanksgiving we drove the 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon up to Corvallis, Oregon, and back. Editor JayKav said a one-way trip could be done in one day (about 11-14 hours) so the plan was to spend all day driving on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and all day for the return trip on Sunday.
I was supposed to take over some of the driving but JayKav pushed through. His Lemons experience really paid off, building up his endurance and his skills at getting around the herds of holiday drivers aka left-lane squatters. In any case, I spent the entire trip playing navigator, DJ, entertainment director and trip photographer.
For navigation, I stuck to using my iPhone 4S since the search function on the TSX's nav is too clunky and you can't specify the area ahead of you. While on my iPhone, I could just pull up restaurant options in remote towns on my Yelp app and upcoming gas stations/pit stops in Google Maps.
For music, we had to connect Jay's iPhone to the car's Bluetooth while it was stopped. Once connected it worked just fine. We also had the additional option of hooking up my iPhone via aux so we could switch back and forth from our playlists and I could also still play Spotify. The only issue is that Jay likes to play the music at low volumes and since the road noise is pretty significant in the cabin and I could barely get my groove on.
I would have fallen asleep a lot more but, frankly, the side bolsters of the seat and the angle of the headrest weren't all that comfortable, pressing my shoulders and head forward. I ended up sleeping with my head at a weird angle to the side and would wake up with killer neck pain. But I guess good co-pilots shouldn't sleep anyway.
At least the seat heater was effective, keeping things nice and cozy. I kept it on high throughout the whole trip just because as you know by now I'm always cold.
But I enjoyed my time in the TSX. I may not have found the passenger seat all that comfortable but I appreciated all its space and audio technology options. And that since it's a sport wagon, Jay was able to take it on some fun roads on the return trip home. (Highway 58 to the 14 to Angeles Crest Highway was the way to go to avoid the holiday gridlock on the Grapevine.) Can't do something like that with usual road trip options like a crossover or SUV.
As for the trip's fuel numbers, Jay will have that and all that other good stuff like driving impressions when he gets back from the Tokyo auto show.
The TSX took a rock from a gravel truck on Caroline's Big Adventure last weekend. She reports that she could actually hear the crack growing at the end of the trip.
Nice.
It won't be long before this crack grows across the whole windshield.
Bummer.
My iPhone 4 doesn't get along with the TSX's Bluetooth. Or, perhaps, vice-versa. Either way, it drives me crazy
Here's the problem:
With the phone paired to the car, any call I place defaults to the handset, which is illegal to place to your ear while driving in California. The iPhone offers the option to switch manually while paired to a Bluetooth source but even selecting the Acura's "HandsfreeLink" doesn't send the call through the car.
After multiple awkward conversations which ended with me pulling over to talk on the handset, I realized that I could manually switch between the handset and the "HandsFreeLink" using the car's "phone" menu. It requires a few button pushes before it eventually switches.
But it shouldn't work that way.
It's a problem. And it's a problem that's well documented here by owners of the 2011 TSX using the iPhone 4 and 4S — one of whom claims to have run the issue all the way up the Acura food chain with no resolution.
I've contacted Acura's HandFreeLink customer service myself about the issue. I'll share the response — when I get one — in another post.
I expected to come into the office this morning and see a bunch of blog posts about Christmas tree shopping. No holiday spirit this year, guys? I got a beautiful tree, a wreath, garland, two poinsettias and great customer service. After picking out my perfect tree, I went on to seek out the rest of my goodies. When I was finished I came out to find the tree already tied to the top of the wagon's rack and completely wrapped in protective plastic. Nice.
There is always one car on our list that I sign out as often as possible. It used to be the Nissan GT-R, then it was the Audi A4 Avant, now it's the TSX Sport Wagon. The more I drive this car, the more I want it. If we had purchased it, I would definitely buy it at the end of our test year. But Honda loaned us this car and it will go back some time in January.
I'm so comfortable in it. I like the way it drives, it has the audio features I like, enough room in the back to carry my weekend stuff and make runs to the post office. I hope Honda continues to make it.
Unlike Jay, I have no problem with its automatic transmission. But I admit 90% of the time, I'd much rather drive an automatic than a manual. Sacrilege, I know. But it's the truth.
Whew! The morning after my T-day weekend round trip blast from Los Angeles to Corvallis, OR, I jumped on a plane to Tokyo. Seems like I've been gone forever. Anyway, I haven't forgotten that I said I'd respond to your inquiries regarding the TSX on that trip so long ago.
First up is ed124c's question. Here goes.
ed124c: "Do the good things about the car negate that it has an automatic and isn't very fast? My mind set is that a slow car with an auto is much, much more boring to drive than a slow car with a stick."
No doubt about it, the automatic is one of this TSX's biggest letdowns. Now, I'm of the mind that slushboxes are soul-sucking tools of the devil. I wouldn't buy an automatic-equipped car of any stripe, but will concede that some are better than others. The TSX's automatic is behind the times. Its shifts are not smooth, and nor are they executed particularly quickly.
Having a manual mode/paddles helps make the best of a lame situation, true, but the lack of rev-matched downshifts makes for lurchiness. Considering Honda makes some damned good manual gearboxes, the situation with the auto is that much more aggravating. Buy the stick, folks.
Engine-wise, certainly there's some throttle mapping trickery going on at the first few millimeters of throttle tip-in intended to make the TSX feel strong off the line. I feel this calibration is too exaggerated and the car is jumpy as a result, only to be followed up with not-much-home if you proceed to really dip into the throttle's travel.
As for freeway speed, the TSX felt sprightly enough for this trip. Never really underpowered per se. Low end torque is not its strong suit but it has a nice flat torque curve even as revs climb towards the red. The engine also sounds good and is smooth, so it encourages giving it revs. On this trip it had unstressed passing power on the freeway.
So in summary, the power is fine (enough) but the automatic transmission is a bummer.
To keep myself entertained for the 1,900-mile roundtrip to and from Oregon while in the 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon's passenger seat, I took photos. Unfortunately/fortunately the pictures were taken with my ever-present iPhone 4S which is fine in well-lit, non-moving situations but can sometimes make for blurry photos.
Anyway, if you're really bored, and feel like looking at vacation photos, here's the Acura TSX in the Northwest.
We thought 469 miles was the most miles the TSX went between fillups in its life, but turns out 509.4 on November 2 is. But 469 was the most for our road trip.
On the hunt for mushrooms in Corvallis. Our guide took us up into the woods. No real off-roading here but lots of unnamed unpaved roads. Nothing the FWD TSX couldn't handle.
Gotta love dual climate controls. Seat heater on! And that cord is for the...uh, ultrasonic deer repeller, which really came in handy. Although, apparently there aren't many "deer" on Oregon highways anyway.
Taken in front of the Eugene outpost of the famous Voodoo Doughnut. Bacon maple bar is a must-have.
Taking fun roads on the return trip to L.A. (58 to the 14 to Angeles Crest Highway) because in this car we can.
Our longterm 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon is pictured taking a break in lovely Ashland, OR where I visited a LeMons buddy on my way up to Corvallis.
On the way to Ashland on the I-5 in northern CA, there's a nice, winding run up and down the Cascade mountains (best roadsign: "Sexton Mt Pass", where someone had removed the "t" in "Sexton"). Well, it's nice when it's light out and the weather's clear, neither of which was the case here. It was dark and foggy and rainy, the road's unlit, and the resulting spray off cars in front made for a lot of driving with minimal visibility. Ah well.
Next up is emajor's question. Hit the jump.
emajor: "Let us know how the road noise is on the godawful rough-textured I-5 in the Willamette Valley. That stretch of interstate is the ultimate test of sound isolation for a car. I'm pretty sure our old Civic was only a few decibels shy of causing hearing loss on that road."
Road noise was pretty bad up there. But as you say, that's a crummy road. In general, I wouldn't say the TSX has exceptionally poor or outstanding isolation from road noise. About adequate, I'd say. The road noise in the TSX wasn't the constant, obnoxious kind that just wears you down after a few hours in the saddle the way a Miata does. I didn't feel beat up by road noise even after driving for 11 hours.
The seat, however, sucks. Scratch that — the part that sucks is that damned sitting-in-a-pregnant-lady's-lap aspect that comes courtesy of the stupid, stupid balloony "lumbar" lump that's right in the middle of your back. Why this lump continues to exist in Honda products remains a seating mystery overshadowed only by the Corvette's flaccid thrones.
I drove our longterm 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon nearly 1,900 miles in the span of a few days. And you know what? I'd do it again.
The ride is very well damped without being stiff or, alternatively, any hint of float. Really quite nice. And its cabin is well laid-out, looks good and feels a quality place. I did notice that the steering requires constant little corrections when the road is dead-straight — a consequence of its electric power steering — and the seat could be better, true. But those aren't dealbreakers and there's a lot to like here.
With that, I give you my response to bruceb916's query, plus a bonus — the TSX's round-trip fuel economy.
bruceb916: "I'd like to know how the little 4 holds up while climbing the grapevine and the semi-twisty 5 outside of Redding.
Secondly, how will the car hold all of the various things you need for a long drive up the 5? The multiple coffee cups, water bottles, gas station junk food wrappers and the almighty In-N-Out Double Double and Animal Fry?"
The TSX had plenty of juice when climbing grades. In fact, there was power to spare. Though I poo-pooed it earlier, the autobox does have a nice aspect — its grade logic. I'd cruise at 80 mph or so and the TSX's autobox would downshift and hold a gear. No hunting.
On the whole I have no major complaints about the TSX's ability to move around slower traffic on the freeway. Sure, more grunt is always nice (unless it results in unmanageable torque steer, in which case solution = RWD).
And yeah, the TSX has good cabin storage. Two coffees in the center console, a Sigg water thing in each door, and enough room in the armrest bin for a half-dozen In-N-Out Four By Fours. The TSX's large cargo area was more than a match for our relatively light luggage, and there was no need to fold the seats (sorry, username legacygt).
Fuel economy for the entire trip? 27.2 mpg. Almost all highway. Lots of 80 mph cruising. As for fuel, I used 91 octane since I like to use the throttle and wanted any extra juice on the table.
The TSX recently came out on the short end of a battle with a rock from a gravel truck. It turned into quite the crack, so we had to replace the whole windshield.
We looked into getting a new one from Safelite Auto Glass, who gave us a quote of $553.64, but ultimately we chose to get it replaced at Santa Monica Acura for a whopping $1,323.62, including new molding and of course tax.
Why did we do this? Because the TSX is not our car (it's an Acura press vehicle) and we wanted to replace the windshield with factory glass from the dealer.
I'm with Donna; I'd buy this car.
The odd thing about the TSX wagon is that it doesn't do any one thing exceptionally well. It's not particularly fast, but it accelerates in smooth, linear fashion, and you can still feel the switch to every Honda nerd's favorite cam profile (still kickin' in, yo). It's not particularly sporty, yet it feels taut and responsive. Those rear shock tower housings protrude into the cargo area and cut down on maximum cargo capacity, but the TSX wagon still feels pretty roomy. And even with the intrusion, the TSX wagon still out-volumes the 3 Series, A4 and CTS wagons, falling just shy of the Jetta Sportwagen and Volvo XC70.
The steering wheel and center stack button orgy is excessive, but I still like sitting among the TSX's technology. The nav system is easy to operate — if you know where you're going (search function is tiresome; automakers, see "outsource functionality to Google" in the product planning recommendations). The ELS audio system sings pretty sweetly, and I really like the hard-drive music storage option. Nothing good on the radio? Flip to some old tracks you haven't kicked in awhile. The graphics interface is clean, although I'd prefer the dial controller near the shifter.
Comfortable seats (I don't notice lumbar as much as others on staff, nor as much as in other H/A cars), small steering wheel, good visibility; the TSX wagon just does a lot of things well. No standout abilities, but it ties together most of what I'd need as a daily driver and weekend mule. I could haul drums, surfboards, kids and coolers. Unladen, it would be a fun car to romp on twisty roads. I'd fill it with 91 now and then, but not exclusively. The audio would alleviate miserable commutes.
Local dealers are asking about $32,000 for CPO models with the Tech package and 5,000 miles. That's about $3,000 off the MSRP for a new Tech package model. So forget all the V6/manual/all-wheel-drive conditional scenarios; provided you like the wagon in the first place, if you could whittle that CPO price below $30,000, do you buy it?
It's a common thing during track testing days, usually when it's 99 degrees out in Fontana. Sitting in a cone-shagger, watching Monticello obliterate orange pylons as if they'd stolen his favorite bike, someone - the driver, the note-taker, the color commentator - flips the heater switch on ya. Next thing you know, like a frog in boiling water, you got swamp-ass.
The Wife was a ripe target for such shenanigans the other night. When she wasn't looking, I fired up the toaster.
Could've had something to do with the ambient temperature hovering in the low 50s, but the prank didn't really take. Finally she told me I could turn the seat warmer off. The woman never gets my jokes!
Next morning however, with falling rain and same temperatures, the bum heater was the first thing she reached for. "This is nice," she said. "Does the Odyssey have these?" Doh!
Monti's road rage claims another innocent...
Turns out the Acura TSX Sport Wagon doesn't just look great; it's also one of the safest vehicles in its category. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) just gave the 2012 TSX wagon its Top Safety Pick award; this award recognizes vehicles that do the best job of protecting occupants in front, side, rollover, and rear crashes. The TSX wagon earned the highest-possible score of "Good" in frontal-offset, side-impact and roof-strength crash tests conducted by the IIHS.
The 2012 model is a carryover from the 2011 model, but gets additional cargo-area storage space thanks to a compact tire repair kit. The 2012 wagon also gets a new Special Edition package that offers some sporty styling upgrades.
Acura's 2012 TL sedan (only TL models built after September 2011 qualify), TSX sedan and MDX crossover were also recognized as being Top Safety Picks in their respective categories.
So we've had our TSX wagon for awhile now and although I generally enjoy driving it, I still don't like the control layout on the center stack. I can deal with a multitude of buttons, but I can't get the hang of numerous buttons that are so haphazardly placed.
Sure, there's some method to this madness — the radio controls across the top, the nav controls clustered in the center — but it never becomes second nature. More than a few times this past weekend, I would look down to make one change or the other and not find what I was looking for at first glance. That, and there's no tuning knob. Unforgivable.
As a new working mom, I’ve been thinking about getting a wagon to accommodate the needs of my growing family. I’m considering a wagon because it has the styling, sportiness, and fuel efficiency of a sedan, but with what appears like more cargo space.
Currently, I take my son to day care in our 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab truck, and then swap with my husband for our 2000 BMW M roadster to commute to work. The Ram has plenty of space for the baby and gear, but loading and unloading at the truck’s ride height is taking its toll on my back. It also takes a toll on my wallet, with the 10 mpg the truck averages around town. The BMW is great on gas mileage, but as a tiny two-seater, you can take the baby or the gear but not both.
So I figured a wagon would be the happy medium.
On a Saturday I simulated my morning routine, packing our long term Acura TSX Wagon with my son’s baby gear. It was surprisingly difficult – like playing a game of kiddie Tetris. The stroller only fit lengthwise across the cargo area, and the cargo area’s fender wells prevent the stroller from being pushed all the way in against the back seat. (Well, it is kind of the Hummer H2 of strollers.)
This left space behind the stroller for other items, but I doubt I’d remember to stick things back there on a busy morning. With a lot of pushing and shoving I was able to get it all in: stroller, walker, ride-on car, activity gym, blanket, toy bag, and diaper bag. (Who knew that babies need all this stuff?!)
Unfortunately, all this cargo completely blocked rear visibility from the driver’s seat. This is even more of an issue with the TSX than other wagons because the sloped roofline which gives this wagon its sleek style also impacts its cargo capacity. I relied on the back-up camera and outside mirrors to navigate safely out of my driveway and we drove to the farmer’s market, a typical Saturday event at my house and probably a typical event for new moms in general.
With respect to car seat installation, I installed both an infant and a convertible car seat in the wagon. Both seats were easy to install with the LATCH anchor points easily accessible. The only kink was that I had to completely empty the cargo area to access the latch for the convertible car seat’s top tether. With both car seats installed, the back seat seemed to disappear. The back of the passenger seat butted right up to the infant car seat, and on the driver’s side, there was almost no rear legroom when the driver’s seat was positioned to accommodate my 6-foot-4 husband. It made me realize that a wagon is just a sedan with a big cargo box grafted onto the back; the passenger space doesn’t magically increase in size just because it’s called a wagon instead of a sedan.
Outside of the kiddie cargo challenges, the Acura TSX Wagon is comfortable and well equipped. The cockpit controls are intuitively placed and I was surprised at how responsive the car was with just a 4-cylinder engine. It was easy to park at the farmer’s market, which is important because people are coming and going all the time. We came back with fresh tamales and some watermelon drinks like always.
Bottom line – I really enjoyed driving the TSX Wagon, but wedging my infant son’s gear into the back like a puzzle has proven more of a challenge than I’d have the patience for on hectic mornings. Probably I should consider a utility vehicle, but I really just like a wagon. Right now, my husband is talking about putting a Chevy V8 in our hobby car, a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air Beauville wagon that’s dark red with champagne gold. Now that’s a sensible choice, right?
I just can’t quite figure out which car is right for me at the moment.
I'm probably the least mature editor on staff. While my same-aged (and younger) colleagues here have multiple children and equity in their homes, I spent the holiday weekend in my rental duplex building a plastic model and huffing Testors model paint and glue. But that all changed on the day after Christmas.
The young man pictured above is my nephew Dino. Yes, he is named after Enzo Ferrari's first son. For his ChrismaHannukah present, rather than opting for some toy that he'd break (ok, it'd be me that would likely break it) inside of two weeks, I took him to the gun range.
Dino had shown some interest in hitting the range with me, so as the family's resident shooter, I gladly obliged. I had originally signed-out the Mustang for the weekend, but a construction project for Mr. Riswick had me in the TSX instead. Good thing, too, because my shooting gear wouldn't have fit in the Mustang.
When I picked up Dino, however, I realized that I had to change my driving habits. I felt that I had to set a good example. Plus, I didn't want all of that ordinance to go banging from side to side in the cargo hold. This is one time in my life when having a rather sedate drive paid off.
The TSX doesn't allow me to have too much fun. It is, after all, an adult car. As a protective uncle that rarely has child passengers, I was also on high alert for inattentive drivers. I was also much more patient with my fellow drivers, mentally editing what I would have been saying if I were alone in the car.
At the range, Dino displayed a level of maturity and focus that most of my adult friends lack. On top of that, I think he's a natural behind the trigger (except for his far-too-long hair getting in the way of the scope). In total, we spent about five hours together. The TSX served as both a Sherpa and picnic bench. For Dino, it also doubled as a mobile cot, as he conked-out on the drive home. I'm still too much of a kid to consider the Acura as a purchase car, but as a weekend uncle-mobile, it was perfect.
Besides being a decent uncle-mobile over the extended holiday weekend, our TSX wagon also turned out to be an admirable choice for the weekend woodworker.
I've been working on a bar for the Riswick man cave for a few weeks. James will post more on that later. This weekend, I had to scurry all over the greater L.A. area to get started on phase two of the RizBar. I picked up a router table from my brother and that was an easy fit into the TSX's cargo bay.
I was more worried about a sheet of 3/8-inch tempered glass that I had to pick up. Fortunately, the rear seats fold almost flat and provided a great surface. I used the two tie-down straps to secure the glass, as well as that suction cup camera mount to ensure it didn't slide forward. I would've posted a picture, but my camera's memory card crapped out on me.
The TSX also tackled some light lumberyard duties as well. Several 2x2 posts and 4-inch facing pieces, a folding table and workbench weren't a problem. In fact, if I had the energy to return a table saw and compound miter saw back to my parent's house, I'm sure that would have fit just fine.
And the TSX, as a result, fit me just fine. I'm not a minivan type of guy, nor am I a pickup truck type. I like having a lower profile and a car that's easy to squeeze into a narrow parking spot. This medium-sized project might, however, be the limit to the Acura's capabilities. If I decide to build my massive entertainment center, the Odyssey or Sienna will likely be needed.
Last week you'll remember I had an odd electrical issue with our Chevy Volt; the fan-speed control simply refused to allow me to turn it down. Not one person I spoke with in our office had a remotely similar experience.
Then, just a few days later, I hopped into our Acura TSX Sportwagon and the nav screen wouldn't work. Not just the nav, NOTHING worked. I pressed Audio and nothing happened — not even the annoying "You just pressed a button in an Acura" beep. I pressed enter, map, menu, info/phone, the day/ night button, all 24 buttons up there. Even the ones that made no sense to press to turn on a screen. Nothing worked.
So, like with the Volt, I pulled over and restarted the car. Everything worked fine. Both of these cars worked fine when I drove them home and only went crazy after I parked them in my garage (the same place the Mini Countryman fixed itself). Am I just unlucky?
(You'll note I used a photo taken by Kurt Niebuhr instead of a picture of a blank screen taken by me. Chalk that up to the glare problem as reported by Mrs Riches.)
We've started using our new 2-post Rotary Lift more and more. Almost daily in fact. This morning it was our Acura TSX Sport Wagon's turn to reveal to us its underthings.
More picturers after the jump.
Okay, so we've had the discussion here a few times on wheter or not you (or anyone) would or should buy the TSX Wagon. Donna, Frio and I are in agreement that we'd buy one. (I want our long termer when it's done truth be told.) Austria and Montoya are boring and hate useable space and would buy the sedan.
Al gave you the numbers for Jan - August. Acura moved 16,438 TSX sedans with 2,171 of them being wagons. How did the wagon finish out the year? (Hint: better than the Equus)
TSX: 30,935
TSX Wagon: 3,210
That puts the TSX wagon at more than 10 percent of TSX sales which sounds low, but is higher than the manual transmission take rate on far too many cars. The TSX wagon also handily outsold the ZDX (1,564 units this year) and the RL (1,096 units). The TSX Wagon also outsold the G-Class, the entire Maybach lineup, the Subaru Tribeca, the Hyundai Equus, Lancer Evolution (2,118), Lancer Sportback (1,548) and I'm sure more.
In unrelated sales news, both the Kia Borrego and the Kia Rondo also outsold the entire Maybach line by a score of 429/47 (Borrego/Rondo) to 39. This isn't terribly interesting unless you consider that both the Borrego or the Rondo were axed after the 2009 model year.
These are nice. Doesn't seem like such a big deal until you need them, but they're a critical component of any wagon when it comes to road tripping safely. Also, they fold flat and offer solid, reliable operation. There are four of them — one at each corner of the TSX's cargo area.
Nice job, Acura.
In the timeless words of the great philospher of Storage Wars, Dave Hester...
...YUUUP!
Two bikes will fit. They're under there, trust me.
Here's the thing...I'm not always awesome. I know some of you will find that hard to believe. For those who aren't sure, here's some proof.
It's possible I've been an idiot in exactly the same way twice. It's possible I've managed to kill the battery on an airport-parked long-term car twice in 18 months.
Fortunately, because of my former stupidity, I've become an expert in finding fellow airport patrons who pack jumper cables. It took about 20 seconds of loaned electrons from a Cadillac Escalade to bring the TSX back to life.
All of it, that is — and here comes the point, I promise — except the radio. As you can see it requires a code. So I called Acura's customer care number. Took about ten minutes of talking to Steve to sort out the confusion about who actually owns the car (Acura, it's on loan to us) and prove to him that I didn't steal it so he'd give me the code. That part would likely be much easier if you owned the car yourself.
Or you could just remember to turn off the interior lights before you fly to Detroit for three days.
Here's one I didn't see coming: 26.61 mpg in mixed drving. My mixed driving. More importantly, my indifferent mixed driving.
I'm not going to pretend this is some kind of miracle, but it's certainly nothing to sneeze at, either. After all, our average mpg in this car through its first 19,232 miles was 24.6 mpg. So this is not a huge increase in most people's hands, but I've never considered myself a light foot.
If nothing else, this little wagon is reasonably efficient.
We have 20,000 miles of good road behind us in the Acura TSX Sport Wagon. With most of our long-term test cars, our goal is drive 20,000 miles within our one year. We passed this number last night driving south on the 405 freeway. I couldn't take a picture of the exact click over because I was in a bit of frenzied traffic. But as soon as I exited and stopped at a red light, I snapped this pic.
This TSX wagon, beloved by many on our staff, is scheduled to go back to the manufacturer on Monday. It will be missed. Both Magrath and I have mentioned that we would purchase this vehicle if it was one of the cars that our company had bought. But it was a loaner from Acura and so we have to relinquish the keys.
In the twelve months that we enjoyed the Acura TSX, our only issue was a cracked windshield which we replaced in December. Other than that it was just the usual maintenance.
Any of you thinking of buying an Acura TSX Sport Wagon?
I'm not sure if the TSX returned to its rightful owners today, but I already miss it. Give it the same V6 and six-speed
manual
auto slated for the 2013 RDX, and discover a better way to minimize the cargo intrusion from those rear shock towers, and I'm in.
The above photo shows something I'll miss. The TSX emphatically states that this compartment is not an ashtray. Felt lining inside even drives home the point. But the compartment and accessory outlet do make a good dumbphone rest. No sacrificing a cupholder here.
But this is lame.
Enough with the proprietary USB connections. Volkswagen in back there, talking to you, too. Just give us the port and let us decide how to defile it (slightly harsh criticism in this application, as it works well for thumb drives. Easier to tuck away than the alternative of accidentally snapping a drive poking out inside a cluttered compartment).
I'm one of those car guys that thinks wagons are cool. I'm not talking Wagon Queen Family Truckster here, but rather Euro-flavored wagons that are more like sport sedans with big trunks.
I like the lower, sleeker styling of a traditional station wagon compared to the bulky and high-riding crossovers that are all the rage. The Jetta TDI SportWagen (6-speed manual, please) has long been my pick due to its generous cargo capacity, ideal handling/ride balance and peppy turbodiesel that sips fuel to the tune of estimates of 30 city and 42 highway. But having driven our recently departed Acura TSX Sport Wagon, I was reminded how close it comes to knocking the Vee-Dub off my top wagon list...
As you've figured out by now, the photo above is of the European market Honda Accord Touring wagon, the twin to the Acura TSX Sport Wagon. Were I to get the Acura, I'd have to replace its grille and bumper with the Honda's. Need I say why? Otherwise, I think the TSX wagon looks fine — the rising beltline gives it an aggressive, crouching stance that works for me. I prefer its styling to the sedan, actually, especially when viewed from the rear 3/4 angle.
Enough about looks, what really endears me to this Acura is its strengths as a daily driver and its ability to haul stuff without screaming "family car". Sure, it could use more power and it's odd that the V6 isn't available for the wagon, but it's a smooth, willing four that, under our heavy feet and subjected to L.A.'s horrid traffic managed to average about 25 mpg. It's comfortable on long rides, provides 66 cubes worth of cargo capacity and would likely be as reliable as an anvil, if Acura's strong history in that regard is any indicator.
Wrap-Up
There were plenty of questions on the table when our long-term 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon arrived. There was the typical, "Is it better than a small SUV?" Then there was the size issue. Is it too small of a wagon to be truly useful? And finally, we were curious if a 3,600-pound, 201-horsepower wagon could really be considered sporty.
We knew there would be baggage attached to any wagon that entered the fleet. Sure, we like the idea of a wagon and all, but we're well aware that most consumers don't, at least in the U.S. Time to see if times have changed at all.
Keep It Simple
The pricing structure for Acura products is simple. There are no options. Rather, the cars are grouped by trim level. In the case of the 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon, there are two.
Standard equipment on the TSX Base was a 201-hp, 2.4-liter iVTEC four-cylinder engine, paired with a five-speed automatic transmission. Leather seating, numerous airbags, a moonroof and Bluetooth capability were among its notable features. Step up to the TSX Tech to add navigation, a back-up camera, AcuraLink real-time traffic and weather, ELS surround-sound system, dual-zone climate control and a power liftgate.
We selected a 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon Tech to make sure it was a little more road-trip-worthy. It carried an MSRP of $35,470 including destination charges. If a wagon was ever going to have a chance, this was it.
Looks and Feels
Within the confines of its cabin our TSX was visually impressive. Ebony leather, matte chrome trims and textured plastics gave a sense of refinement and taste to the Acura. Generally, the interior was well assembled and of high quality. The finger pointers on our staff were giddy over the button-laden center stack and steering wheel. But they were in the minority. The number of buttons bordered on excessive. Yet with practice, everyone found them easy to use.
There was decent cabin space, too. One editor complimented the TSX with, "There is much more space in the cargo area than I expected. I didn't need an SUV after all. The four of us fit our luggage in the back, although there was little room to spare." Those under 6 feet tall found this sense of spaciousness extended to passenger legroom in all positions. Anyone taller will complain of legroom limitations in the second row.
Short trips in the TSX were effortless. It was over the long haul that its driver seat left some wanting more. Engineering Editor Jason Kavanagh wrote, "The seat sucks. Scratch that — the part that sucks is that damned sitting-in-a-pregnant-lady's-lap aspect that comes courtesy of the stupid, stupid, balloony lumbar lump that's right in the middle of your back. Why this lump continues to exist in Honda products remains a seating mystery." Another driver added, "My back hurt for about half of my six-hour trip. The driver seatback cushion is a little squooshy — I wish it was firmer. Also, I wish the seat bottom cushion was extendable so I could have a little more thigh support."
Technology features set our 2011 Acura TSX apart from the Base model. The navigation system did not miss a beat. The car's ELS stereo was among the best we've tested, leading one editor to say, "The system exceeded my expectations — not just for a wagon, but judged against OEM audio in any type of vehicle. It accomplished what few systems can. It made me want to hit the road and crank my music."
The Bluetooth pairing process didn't receive the same level of praise. The combination of voice commands and button-pushing made the simple act of pairing a phone clumsy. Most folks will not have to link their phones every time they get into the car as we do, but it still shouldn't take as much time and effort as it does in the TSX.
Dynamic Impressions
Long-term test cars with any semblance of utility ascend the popularity pyramid quickly. Road-trip requests are commonplace. It was here on the road that we learned more about the dynamic character of this sport wagon.
Perhaps the biggest psychological hurdle working against the 2011 Acura TSX was its self-described status as a sport wagon. Senior Editor Erin Riches explained, "There's a lot more isolation built into the Acura, and while that keeps things comfortable, it's hard to get a read on what's happening through either the steering wheel or driver seat. Obviously, this isn't critical for safety or sanity, but the lack of feedback sure is boring. Add in a moderate helping of body roll and you're left with a family cruiser that could only be called a sport wagon by the loosest definition."
At freeway speeds the four-cylinder rarely felt underpowered. There's not much low-end torque, but its torque curve remains flat even as the engine revs climb. At the top end it even sounded nice, unlike the thrashy note of some competitive four-cylinders. We appreciated the TSX's manual shift mode and steering-wheel-mounted shift paddles, but the lack of rev-matching made for some awkward downshifts.
Cargo Capacity
The appeal of our sport wagon over a standard TSX was, obviously, the easily accessible cargo space. A look at the numbers shows that the 2011 Acura TSX offers 25.8 cubic feet of space behind its rear seats, which was comparable to most CUVs. Fold the seatbacks flat and its 60.5 cubic feet of cargo capacity settled around the middle of the crossover pack. We found the amount of cargo space ample for most of our needs.
"There's plenty of room for the 65-pound pooch. I can't say that about our Mini Countryman or Nissan Juke," read one blog entry. Another added, "The second-row seats don't fold completely flat, but Acura makes up for it with three bins beneath the rear load floor."
Steel tie-downs for stowed gear were also welcomed. We loaded big-screen TVs, luggage and bicycles into the TSX with ease. If we had a critique it was regarding the lack of remote release handles for the second-row seats. Some of our staff are high maintenance and the need to fold the seats via levers on the seatbacks was too "old-school" for them.
Minimal Maintenance
As the mileage accumulated, our TSX required normal maintenance. Over the span of our 12-month test we spent roughly $230 on preventative items, namely oil changes and tire rotations. It was worth it, too, as the Acura didn't leave us stranded, ever.
Only once did we visit the dealer for anything beyond the routine check-ups at 10,000 and 15,000 miles. A windshield chip grew to a crack and needed replacement. Since we borrowed the TSX from Acura, aftermarket glass was not an option. We paid a hefty $1,300 for Santa Monica Acura to install our new windshield, fresh from the factory.
Cost To Own
Maintenance costs were reasonable for the 2011 Acura TSX during our test. We spent less than $20 a month for the routine items. Fuel costs would be higher if we ran the TSX strictly on the recommended premium gasoline, but we didn't. We noticed negligible differences in fuel economy based on our driving patterns. That said, our best single tank of fuel was nearly 33 mpg, which covered more than 500 miles. The EPA rates highway fuel economy at 30 mpg. We averaged 24.6 mpg over 20,000 miles of testing, matching EPA estimations.
Each test ends with a pass through Edmunds' TMV® Calculator. No exceptions here. The TSX Sport Wagon depreciated 21 percent from its original MSRP based on a private-party sale. In our experience, this is slightly better than average.
Where Does It Fit?
After 20,000 miles with the 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon we found ourselves still searching to find its personality. On some levels the TSX was competitive, whereas on others it was merely average. It was a solid choice, but struggled to develop enough character to distinguish itself.
The 2.4-liter engine was merely adequate, as was the five-speed transmission. Its handling was respectable, yet the steering lacked the feel and feedback of a car with sporting intentions. Early on we decided the Sport connotation did not belong on this wagon. We feel the same way now. Still, it made up for performance limitations with simple comfort items.
An excellent stereo and quiet, compliant ride made it a nice place to be on long trips, even if the driver seat did not conform to all tastes. Fuel economy showed moments of brilliance. Build quality was very good. And resale value measured up to the rest of the pack. A little more sport would be nice, but apart from that this TSX wagon is exactly what we expected it would be — an excellent SUV alternative for those who don't care to ride high and guzzle gas.
| Total Body Repair Costs: | None |
| Total Routine Maintenance Costs: | $227.72 (over 12 months) |
| Additional Maintenance Costs: | $1,323,62 |
| Warranty Repairs: | None |
| Non-Warranty Repairs: | Replaced windshield with factory glass |
| Scheduled Dealer Visits: | 2 |
| Unscheduled Dealer Visits: | 1 |
| Days Out of Service: | None |
| Breakdowns Stranding Driver: | None |
| Best Fuel Economy: | 32.5 mpg |
| Worst Fuel Economy: | 18.9 mpg |
| Average Fuel Economy: | 24.6 mpg |
| True Market Value at service end: | $27,880 (private party sale) |
| Depreciation: | $7,590 (or 21% of original MSRP) |
| Final Odometer Reading: | 20,010 miles |
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.